


The Woman With the Golden Sword

by star_voyager



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: (as if the work title didnt already make that PAINFULLY obvious), Alcohol, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Alternate Universe - Spies & Secret Agents, Catra is still a catgirl bc its my fic and I MAKE THE RULES, F/F, Multi, also shadow weaver is maskless in this fic, and glitradora happens eventually i 'promise' ;), bc who doesn't want more of that?!, catradora comes later, even though some chapters are just mature, evil!Adora, full warning: im a giant james bond fan (to a fault) so expect a lot of puns/plays off of that, glimmer is not related to angella or micah, glitra is a thing from the beginning, magic is not a thing, most characters drink, shadow weaver is a high functioning alcoholic, tf is a beta, this bad boy is going to be like 20 chapters, this fic is mature/explicit so i went with the harder rating
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-19
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:49:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 22,904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24802615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/star_voyager/pseuds/star_voyager
Summary: Brightmoon City might seem like glitz and glamour to the average visiting Etherian, but for the select few Brightmoon citizens involved in the city's exclusive espionage network known as 'Alliance,' the city is a dense web of criminal activity that only they can stop.When a series of murders seems to fit the same mysterious profile of an agent from Alliance's rival organization 'Horde,' Alliance's field agents must put an end to their plot before it swallows Brightmoon City, and possibly all of Etheria, whole.But can Alliance stop the mysterious 'She-Ra' before it's too late?
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Adora/Catra/Glimmer (She-Ra), Angella/Micah (She-Ra), Catra/Glimmer (She-Ra), Perfuma/Scorpia (She-Ra)
Comments: 34
Kudos: 90





	1. Prologue - Codename: She-Ra

**Author's Note:**

> follow my +18 only twitter @catraxwhip for behind the scenes and general thought process for developing this story and my main twitter @emxedits for even more spop nonsense

A purple haze fills the skyline of Brightmoon City as its citizens enjoy the evening summer breeze. Known across Etheria for its fine dining, the capital city’s main square is packed with Etherians enjoying the delicacies of the region.

Cafés and restaurants border the wide city center and are packed with Brightmoon citizens and Etherian politicians, finally unwinding after a long work week with the only way they know how, drinking too much and charging the bill to their representative’s office.

Amidst the chaos of the busy four block area, Adora Gray takes a sip from her black coffee as her waiter brings her the bill. The blonde nods a ‘thank you’ as she returns her gaze to the seafood restaurant across the square from the café she has been sitting at for the past two hours.

Tapping the sensor on her black aviator sunglasses, the Horde tech focuses on the woman Adora has been watching since Shadow Weaver gave her this assignment a week prior. Sweet Bee, an Etherian ambassador, sits with her fellow diplomats Double Trouble and Peekablue, enjoying the trio’s second shared bottle of prosecco.

Sweet Bee tosses her strawberry blonde hair over her shoulder in laughter at a quip made by Double Trouble. Peekablue joins his friend in laughter as DT, ever the performer, blushes as they bow their head thanking their audience.

Having seen enough of the Brightmoon officials enjoying their night off, Adora takes out a crisp five dollar bill out of her maroon trench coats left pocket, and nests it neatly in between the empty cup and saucer. Turning her sunglasses off of spyglass mode as she stands to leave, Adora smooths out her jacket, looks at the setting sun, and leaves the café.

* * *

*click*

Adora enters her target’s apartment, slipping her lockpick into her coats right pocket.

Although she knew the small flat would be empty, she still makes sure to check the small space in the off chance Sweet Bee had somehow beat her home.

 _For a Brightmoon official, her living quarters is barely lived in_. Adora thinks to herself as she walks past the kitchen to check the bathroom.

Pulling back the shower curtain to find it also empty, Adora leaves the bathroom and enters the last unchecked room.

Sweet Bee’s bedroom is just as minimally decorated as the rest of her apartment, although a yellow burlap curtain serves as its door, giving the entrance an oddly placed personal touch. Adora circles the neatly made bed and picks up a photo on her target’s nightstand. Sweet Bee, her long hair neatly pinned back, beams in the middle of the photo as her arms hang around Peekablue and Double Trouble’s necks. The three’s outfits make it clear they are at a formal Brightmoon event.

Double Trouble effortlessly wears a simple black gown with a sheer emerald green fabric accenting their figure, Peekablue’s maroon tux brings out his matching bottom eyeshadow, and Sweet Bee’s golden and glittery dress makes the Brightmoon official glow even more than she usually does.

Adora lets out a short breath as she puts the photo back, _Mess Night_ , she thinks to herself. The blonde remembered the night well. It had been the last event she attended as part of the Brightmoon army.

She always hated going to events in her uniform, not that she didn’t like the way she felt in it. The uniform was simple enough for Adora’s tastes, Adora just hated feeling like she was on display. She’d much rather attend events like Brightmoon City’s Mess Night unnoticed. Which she supposed was one of the many perks of her current job as the lead Horde agent.

 _Agent_ …Adora blew out a stream of air from her nose at her occupation as she began to carefully pound on the right side of the bedroom’s wall, searching for something.

When Shadow Weaver herself had approached Adora about working for the Horde, she didn’t know what to make of it. As a soldier she assumed that plenty of espionage went on behind closed doors all over Etheria, after all what modern day planet doesn’t? She just never saw herself in that line of work.

She had always been top of her class in her army training, but she didn’t see herself as anything special. For Adora, what she felt made her a good soldier was her ability to follow orders, something Shadow Weaver pointed out during their first meeting made her an ideal candidate for the Horde.

That observation opened up the idea of leaving the life she had known for five years for an unfamiliar one. It wasn’t until during their second meeting at one of the Horde’s basecamps outside Brightmoon City that Adora could actually picture herself getting into the secretive world of spycraft.

* * *

_“A team of my own?!”_ Adora exclaimed in surprise at Shadow Weaver’s offer two years prior as the two women continued the tour of the Horde basecamp, making their way down the maze of hallways.

Although she was already on a faster pace for making captain in the army, she knew it would be another two years at least until she had a squadron of her own.  
_“Yes Adora. From what I have read about your past missions, you are more than qualified.”_ Shadow Weaver responded.

 _“I…I don’t know if I’m ready to command a team of my own, especially in the wider world of espionage…”_ Adora hesitated, beginning to slowly absorb all the new possible responsibilities.

Suddenly, Shadow Weaver stopped walking and turned towards Adora, her scarred face from an incident Adora hadn’t learned yet, faced her latest recruit.

 _“ You are more than ready, the Brightmoon army has and will continue to waste your talents if you stay.”_ Shadow Weaver reached out to hold Adora’s shoulder, _“But I, I can see your full potential Adora.”_

Adora’s blue eyes met Shadow Weaver’s scarred ones. After a moment Adora lowered her head in a small bow.

_“I accept your offer Shadow Weaver.”_

_“Excellent. I will talk to Hordak about your first mission. In the meantime, I expect you to move in and get yourself acquainted with the other agents here.”_ Shadow Weaver let go of Adora’s shoulder and continued to walk, _“Come now, let me show you your new living quarters Agent Gray.”_

Adora followed.

* * *

Back in Sweet Bee’s apartment, Adora finally finds what she has been looking for as the fifteenth pound on the wall sinks a foot by foot part of the wall in half an inch and slides away revealing a safe.

Adora inspects it and notes that it is fingerprint protected. She pounds on the same space as before, concealing the safe.

Adora exits the bedroom and makes her way to Sweet Bee’s kitchen. She tugs at her white turtleneck and adjusts the thermostat to cool herself down.

Although she has been a Horde agent for almost two years now, the paranoia she gets before a hit has never gone away. Luckily the only sign to her target that she is anxious is a red rash that develops up her sternum to the base of her neck. With a simple purchase of a half a dozen different colored polyester turtlenecks there was no more problem and Adora could focus on the job at hand.

She had only noticed it because Kyle had to comment on it after a mission six months into leading a team of him, Lonnie, and Rogelio.

 _Shadow Weaver might have said I was qualified, but she failed to mention my team was underqualified,_ Adora thinks as she begins investigating more of the apartment.

That had been the only thing close to ‘betrayal’ that Adora had experienced as a Horde agent. She didn’t bring it up to Shadow Weaver until she had worked for the Horde for a year out of fear of the second-in-command seeing it as ‘ungrateful.’

A vibration from her phone in her pocket brings Adora out of her reflective thoughts and she pulls it out to see Sweet Bee is five minutes from being home. The blonde pockets the phone and unbuckles her coat for more movement as she silently moves back into the bathroom.

Turning on the sink and allowing the cold water to run through her right hand for a moment, Adora takes another deep breath as she turns off the water and brings the wet hand to the back of her neck, cooling herself off some more. Closing her eyes as the water dribbles down her skin tight shirt, Adora feels a calmness come over her and the heat that had been building in her chest slows.

Opening her eyes, she looks at her reflection in the mirror and notices the small scar that runs through the middle of her right eyebrow.

 _The last time I went into an assignment unprepared._ Adora thinks as her anxiety turns into rage. Air flairs out of her nostrils as she quickly exits the bathroom.

* * *

Five minutes later, a slightly tipsy Sweet Bee enters her apartment. Tossing her keys into a bowl on a side table, she hangs up her black cardigan and slips off her shoes before continuing into the apartment.

Upon entering the kitchen she gasps at the sight before her. Her usual tidy home has been torn apart. The small kitchen’s cupboard drawers have been flung open and the drawers that surround the kitchen table have been tossed all over the floor, the contents making the white carpeted space a minefield.

 _The safe…._ Sweet Bee thinks as she quickly makes her way to the bedroom.

Drawing her bedroom curtain aside, the strawberry blonde knocks on the wall and initiates the safe from its hiding spot. She places her left ring finger on the fingerprint sensor until the grid glows green. Changing hands, she places her left thumb on the sensor until a ding is heard and the safe opens.

Sweet Bee breathes a sigh of relief as soon as she sees the flash drive still sitting on top of a short pile of files. Only then does she register another breath coming from somewhere in the dark room.

She quickly turns towards where she believes the source to be but it is too late. Adora has already made her way from next to the curtain to Sweet Bee.

The target sees a quick flash of gold before she feels a warm liquid oozing out of her neck. Looking into her killer’s icy blue eyes, a sense of recognition flashes across Sweet Bee’s face as they stumble to the floor.

“She…She-Ra…” The dying woman manages to choke out as she attempts to stop the bleeding with her hand.

Adora’s brow tightens at the nickname. She reaches down and yanks the hand away from her victim’s throat causing the blood to pour out and create a pool behind her head.

“You don’t get to call me that ambassador.” Adora spits out as she watches the life drain from Sweet Bee’s eyes. The flow of blood slows as her heart stops beating.

As the hitwoman stands, she carefully cleans her golden blade using Sweet Bee’s sleeve. After double checking the blade has been cleaned to her satisfaction, she lets go of the arm causing it to fall across Sweet Bee’s chest.

Adora tucks the blade back into the holder built into her coat and ties the outer garment tight again to her liking. Pulling the coats belt through the loop, she fixes the material until it is flat across her torso.

She then steps over the body and opens the safe door completely. Plucking the flash drive from its place inside the safe, Adora tucks the tech into the upper inside pocket of her maroon trench coat and smooths the material for a final time as she leaves the room.

The Horde agent then gets to work carefully returning everything she uprooted in the apartment to its correct place. She makes her way around the kitchen and closes the upper cabinets she opened before picking everything from the drawers off the floor and piling them onto the kitchen table.

Taking her time to align the dragged out drawers correctly, Adora slides them back into their usual spot and then places each item back into the drawer in the right order, having made a mental note of the drawer’s layout when she staged the scene before.

Finished with her work, she walks over to the bedroom for the last time and slowly closes the curtain, making sure the rings on the pole in the doorframe are evenly spaced and hide the crime scene on the other side.

Finally, Adora moves to the short hallway entrance to the apartment and looks back, making sure there are no inconsistencies. Satisfied at not seeing any, the blonde opens the door, locks it from the inside, and leaves the apartment.


	2. Operation: Sparklekitten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alliance is hired to retrieve the stolen flash drive, Bow and Entrapta have a breakthrough, and Catra gets a workout.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> follow my +18 only twitter @catraxwhip for behind the scenes and general thought process for developing this story and my main twitter @emxedits for even more spop nonsense

Catra hisses as a stream of early morning sunlight hits her yellow eye, waking the Magicat two hours before she has to be up for work.

Although her job as an Alliance agent meant she could get called in for jobs at any time, she hadn’t quite gotten used to being woken up before the sun rose.

Luckily for her in the year and a half she had been a field agent the ‘before the dawn’ calls were few and far between. And for Catra it was a much better occupation than the 9 to 5 political strategist she had almost accepted before the head of Alliance herself had recruited her.

Rolling over to her left side to try to block out the light starting to flood her bedroom, she begins to slowly drift back into sleep.

Just as she is finally about to fall asleep again, someone else jumps onto the bed, almost throwing the brunette out of it entirely as she lets out a yelp.

“Sparkles?! What the hell?”

Now fully awake, Catra sits up and runs her hand through her short brown hair as Glimmer smiles cheekily at her. Catra furrows her brow, “What are you even doing up this early?”

“Bow woke me up with a breakthrough on that health-gager-thingy him and Entrapta have been working on this month, and I couldn’t go back to sleep.” Glimmer moves up to sit next to Catra on the other side of the bed.

“So what, you decided to wake me up too? We aren’t supposed to be at HQ for another…” Catra looks at her spy watch on her bedside table, “Three. Hours. I’m going back to sleep.” Catra turns back over to her right side and pulls her blanket over her head, shielding her face from the light coming in.

Glimmer yanks the blanket off of Catra’s side of the bed, “Gods you’re such a grump in the morning. And here I thought we could make use of this extra time we have on our hands to have some fun…” She raises an eyebrow as she finishes her sentence as Catra, now understanding the real reason her roommate woke her up, turns over to face Glimmer.  
Hand on her hip, the catgirl lets out a low dry chuckle as she locks eyes with the other woman, “Oh I see…” Catra retracts her claws and pulls Glimmer’s leg out from under her, causing her to slide down the bed onto her back as Catra quickly moves on top of her. “Since you had ‘extra time on your hands’ you wanted me to fuck you, is that it?” Catra questions, already knowing the answer.

Holding her large purple nightshirt with both hands over the excitement of Catra being on top of her, Glimmer nods.

“Yes please.”

Catra smiles and leans down to kiss Glimmer. Taking the kiss in hungrily, Glimmer’s legs wrap around Catra as her arms snake up Catra’s black tank top.

Before breaking the kiss to allow Glimmer to remove her sleepwear, Catra gently bites down on Glimmer’s bottom lip and drags her fangs over it as she slowly pulls her head up until their mouths finally separate.

Letting out a long and deep breath due to how hot and bothered Catra had already made her, Glimmer whips off the tank top before Catra sits back on her knees, bringing the pink and purple haired girl up with her to take off her shirt.

With both women now sitting up and shirtless, Catra puts her right hand on Glimmer’s hip and playfully snaps her pink underwear, “Want me to take these off for you too princess?”

Glimmer rolls her eyes, “You know I hate when you call me that.”

The brunette half smiles and bares her right fang as she tenderly reaches out to touch Glimmer’s slit over her underwear, “Really? Because the wetness I feel says otherwise.” She begins to slowly run her middle finger over the underwear as Glimmer’s breath hitches. “Yeah that’s what I thought.”  
_Dammit, I’m going to have to shower after this aren’t I?_ Glimmer thinks to herself as she lies back onto the bed and lifts her hips as Catra peels off the underwear.

Surprised at how wet Glimmer is, Catra raises an eyebrow as she tosses the damp underwear off the bed.

“There’s no way my bed head has turned you on this much already.”

The girl underneath her blushes, “Ok so I _might_ have gotten myself started before I came in here.”

Catra’s jaw drops in shock, “Sparkles, that is _very_ naughty of you,” she says mockingly.

Looking the naked woman up and down Catra places her left hand possessively next to Glimmer’s head.

“I’ve been very naughty Catra,” she breathes out.

“And what would you like me to do about that?” The top cocks an eyebrow having already heard the answer moments earlier.

“Catra, please fuck me.” Glimmer whispers, just now remembering their third roommate is only a floor below them.

Catra smiles a toothy grin as she leans her left ear down over Glimmer’s mouth, “I’m sorry, I didn’t quite catch that.” The brunette’s right index and middle finger graze both sides of Glimmer’s lower lips, as the girl underneath her repeats the request through her hitched breath.

“ _Catra…please…fuck me._ ” Glimmer manages to get out as Catra’s fingers begin to enter her folds.

Glimmer’s arms reach around Catra’s back, pulling her closer to feel the vibrations coming from the catgirl’s purrs. As Catra begins a slow, yet building rhythm Glimmer continues her heavy breathing into the top’s sensitive ears.

Grinding against each other as Catra continues building the momentum of her finger fucking, Glimmer pulls her arms off from around Catra to start playing with her perky breasts. The bottom begins circling Catra’s right nipple with her matching hand as her left hand pulls the other girl down into a kiss by the back of the neck.

Still managing to hold herself up with her toned left arm, Catra takes the kiss in aggressively, her own (still underweared) clit starting to throb at the sight of the flustered woman underneath her.

Having built Glimmer up enough, Catra begins holding onto a fast pace of pumps with her two fingers as her right thumb moves up to start rubbing Glimmer’s clit.

That does it. The already warmed up girl underneath hers eye’s pop open at the new sensation and her breath begins to hitch continually, as she comes closer and closer to orgasm.

Glimmer’s right hand falls from Catra’s breast and out across the mattress, overcome with Catra’s movements. The brunette smiles and watches as Glimmer’s eyes make contact with her mismatched ones and the bottom reaches climax.

Unable to get so much as a hitched breath out now, Glimmer watches as Catra leans down into her left shoulder as she slows down her fingers and keeps her thumb’s pace, the wider digit making short strokes against the throbbing clit as Glimmer rides her orgasm.

As she begins to come down, Catra’s strokes match Glimmer’s slowed grinding until they both stop completely. Pushing herself off of the other girl with her left hand, Catra pulls her right hand up and licks Glimmer’s cum from her fingers. Saving her index finger for last, Catra’s pulls it out of her mouth with a *pop* and smiles at the girl below her mouth.

“Is that enough fun for you Sparkles?” Catra asks as she rolls over off of Glimmer, the other girl moving over to nestle into Catra’s already outstretched arm as her left hand absentmindedly plays with Catra’s breasts some more.

“Plenty,” Glimmer coos, kissing her coworker on the cheek. Noticing Catra’s boxers are still on Glimmer raises an eyebrow, “What about you?” She slowly begins to run her hand down towards Catra’s crotch through her fine stomach hair until Catra gently stops her.

“I am going back to sleep. You are welcome to join me.” She puts her free arm behind her head and closes her eyes.

“Really? Are you sure there is nothing I can do to convince you to let me return the favor by I don’t know…” Glimmer quickly moves on top of Catra, her knees straddling both sides of the catgirl’s hips. “Letting me go down on you?” She raises a purple eyebrow.

Catra chuckles as she rolls over onto her back, Glimmer still on top of her, “You have such a way with words Glimmer, you’ll make an amazing head of operations one day.” The brunette teases.

Glimmer rolls her eyes, “Gods can we maybe not talk about work before I’m about to go down on you?”

“Right right, sorry, forgot you don’t like to mix business…” Catra leans up to tenderly kiss Glimmer, “…with pleasure.” Glimmer returns the kiss with a smile before she moves down to Catra’s crotch.

Running her tongue around Catra’s left nipple, her right hand circling the right, Glimmer looks back over at Catra as the Magicat watches with shortened breaths, already hot and bothered over topping the other girl moments earlier.

As they make eye contact, Glimmer continues down and peels off the deep red boxers with her hands. Seeing how wet Catra already is, Glimmer looks back over to her.

“Gods look how wet you are for me Catra.”

Glimmer tenderly kisses the skin above Catra’s public hair as she spreads the other girls legs. As Catra’s folds open, Glimmer slowly sticks her nose in, teasing the brunette before opening her mouth to run her tongue softly over Catra’s clit.

Mismatched eyes roll back as Glimmer begins to get to work. Catra reaches down to hold onto the back of Glimmer’s head as the other girl continues dancing her tongue in all the right places.

*ring ring*

Catra comes out of her daze at her cellphone’s ringtone. Glimmer’s head pops up and she uses her arm to wipe her face as the girl she had just been eating out composes herself to pick up the phone.

A striped arm unplugs her cell from the wall, takes one final breath to compose herself as she reads the caller ID, and answers.

“Catra.”

“Good morning Agent. Sorry to disturb you so early.”

Still coming down from Glimmer bringing her so close to orgasm, Catra lets out a final silent breath before answering, “No worries Angella, I was already up. Do you have an assignment for me?”

“Yes Catra, get Glimmer will you? I need you both on the line for this matter.”

Catra mimes for Glimmer to follow her lead with one hand as she begins to answer her boss, “Of course, one moment.” Catra covers up her phone as her other hand presses her index finger against her coworker’s lips to silence her, “Hey! Sparkles! Get in here!”

Catra waits for several beats before removing her finger from Glimmer’s mouth and putting her cell on speaker.

“I’m on the line ma’am,” Glimmer reports, moving up next to Catra on the bed.

“Excellent, thank you for taking this call agents. I’m afraid I come to you with a most disheartening assignment.”

The two spies look at each other in question before returning their focus to the call.

Angella continues, “Ambassador Sweet Bee was killed last night in her Brightmoon City residence.”

Glimmer gasps in shock as Catra presses Angella for more information.

“I’m sorry to hear that Angella. Do we know the cause?”

“The late ambassador’s throat was slit.” Angella replies matter-of-factly.

Glimmer’s eyes perk up, “Do you think it could be She-Ra?”

Angella sighs, “Agent Glimmer, as I’ve told you before, it is far too early to tell.”

“But does it match the previous slayings?” Glimmer presses.

“I am not at liberty to discuss this over the phone Agent.” Angella responds, prompting a knowing grin from Glimmer.

Moving on past the purpose of the call, Catra asks one final, and to her the most important, question.

“When would you like us in ma’am?”

“No later than 07:00 hours.”

Catra looks at the time on the top of her cell’s screen: 06:20.

“Understood. Agents Glimmer, Bow, and I will be in your office within the hour.”

“No need to worry about Agent Bow Catra, he is already in route. Apparently he made a breakthrough last night in his health tracker invention, Agent Entrapta hasn’t stopped talking about it all morning…in my opinion it sounds very promising.”

Catra side eyes Glimmer, “Overjoyed to hear that Angella, we will be in shortly.”

Hanging up the phone, Catra rolls out from under Glimmer and over to her closet as Glimmer watches her naked body strut across the floor, her tail swaying with each step.

Choosing a simple black button down, Catra pulls the garment over her lean, yet muscular frame and turns towards Glimmer. As she begins to button the shirt down from the third button she looks back at the figure on her bed.

“Ok creep, are you going to watch me get dressed or are you going to also get ready? If you’re not ready in ten, I’m not giving you a ride.”

As Catra pulls out a clean pair of underwear and gray jeans, Glimmer slides off the bed and pulls her shirt back on.

“On that death trap? Please, I’d rather get a ride from one of Entrapta’s self-driving spy cars.”

“Fuck off, my motorcycle is not a death trap. I’ll see you at the office.” Catra begins to walk towards the bathroom off of her room as Glimmer leaves to get ready herself.

* * *

Ten minutes later, Catra throws her faded black leather jacket on over her dress shirt before sliding her motorcycle keys into the vehicle. Pushing her black helmet on over her head, she lines up the ear slots with her large ears and pulls down the visor.

She spots Glimmer getting into her white SUV and reeves the engine before peeling out of their apartment’s garage. The other girl gives Catra a two fingered salute as she watches her coworker weave in and out of the early Brightmoon City traffic as the black and maroon bike takes off towards the heart of the city.

* * *

Thirty minutes later, Catra pulls into the agency’s parking garage. Parking her bike in its usual spot, she sees Entrapta, her purple hair pulled into two braids that hang off the bottom of her white lab coat, approach her. The brunette flips up her helmet’s visor.

“Good morning Catra! You’re here awfully early.” Looking at the not-yet-modified bike behind the agent, Entrapta raises an eyebrow. “How’s the bike treating you? You know I am always happy to improve it for you!”

Catra gets off the bike and chuckles, “Oh I know ‘Trapta. Trust me, when I need to get work done on this baby you’ll be the first person I’ll call.”

“Well I should hope so!” Entrapta pipes up, “After all, my modifications will be off book, if you know what I mean.”

Deciding to humor her agency’s lead tech expert, Catra takes off her helmet and locks it in her bike’s storage compartment, “You know, I’m not sure I do know what you mean. Care to give me some specifics as I head into the office?” The duo begin walking towards the entrance to the building

“Ab-so-lutely!” The scientist beams. “Off the top of my head, I can easily modify lasers into your bike’s headlights, give your tires more grip for tight corners…”

“Lasers you say??” Catra holds the door open for Entrapta as the two head inside. “By all means ‘Trapta, please continue.”

Entrapta grins as she pulls out her tablet, the modifications for Catra’s bike already thoroughly planned out in a presentation. Passing the device into the field agent’s hands Entrapta begins her pitch.

“Now, I know what you’re thinking, ‘hovering wheels that’s crazy Entrapta!’ but if you look at the schematics more closely…”

* * *

Catra and Entrapta finish reading over Entrapta’s plans as the elevator doors open.

“Well I’m sold on the lasers and hovering wheels but to be completely honest….you haven’t sold me on the aux system. My custom helmet you built already has the best surround sound _definitely not Brightmoon City money_ can buy.” Catra winks at Entrapta as they exit the elevator bank.

Entrapta blushes, “Oh stop,” she bats Catra’s shoulder as she leaves the field agent to return to her work.

Walking down the modern white hallway of the spy agency, she hangs up her coat on the coat rack and straightens her collar.

Catra then heads over to the receptionist desk where Perfuma pours herself a cup of coffee.

“Catra? On time?! Pinch me I must be dreaming.” The blonde teases as Catra swipes the coffee from her hand.

“Well with service like this how can I refuse?” Catra quips as she takes a sip from the black coffee. Perfuma rolls her eyes as she takes another cardboard cup from the stack next to the coffee brewer to make a new cup.

As Catra continues her way through the white hallways of Alliance, she notices Bow leaving his lab wiping soot from his face.

“Aw, did my favorite inventor slash roommate fuck up another invention?” Catra snears.

“Maybe I wouldn’t have if you and Glim had kept it down this morning…” Bow mumbles under his breath.

Catra stops her stride and places her left arm on Bow’s right shoulder, “Whoa whoa whoa, hold on there Brainiac. You and I both know that Sparkles and I were only up to distract you because you woke her up with your ‘breakthrough.’ Speaking of which,” Catra whips a smudge of soot from Bow’s face. “You missed a spot.”

Bow playfully pushes his roommate off of him as he dips into the bathroom as Catra continues making her way to the agency’s conference room.

* * *

“Agent Catra, so glad you could join us,” Micah states as Catra sits down in the last remaining chair. The head of foreign affairs at Alliance turns towards his wife as she begins her presentation.

Angella addresses the crowd of Catra, Glimmer, Micah, Scorpia, and Perfuma around her as she makes her way the short distance to her projector.

“As all of you know, Brightmoon City suffered a terrible loss last night with the passing of Etherian Ambassador Sweet Bee.” The head of Alliance allows for a moment of silence before she continues.

“Although her body is still being examined, one thing is certain. This was a hit by the Horde.”

“The Horde?” Catra questions, “They don’t usually make hits against figures so public to Etheria…what makes you so sure?”

“Our clients.” Angella answers as she sits back down in her leather chair. She presses a button on the remote in her hand and Double Trouble and Peekablue appear on the two main screens of the conference room.

“For those of you who don’t know who I am, my name is Peekablue and I am here with my…my associate Double Trouble...” Peekablue stops to calm himself. “I am here with my associate Double Trouble because our ambassador, no our friend was murdered last night at the hands of an unknown assassin.”

The Alliance team continues soaking in the information as Double Trouble clears their throat to speak.

Double Trouble looks away from their camera for a moment to compose themselves before speaking, “Sweet Bee wasn’t only my boss, she was my friend. And last night some unknown assailant cut her…cut her throat open. Peekablue and I already have informed Angella why, and we believe the ‘why’ will point your team in the direction to find the killer.”

DT looks away from their monitor again to compose themselves as the Alliance team digests the new, yet limited information.

“Perfuma and I responded to Double Trouble’s call this morning and have already searched the scene.” Scorpia turns towards Angella, “No leads, the scene was staged to be found exactly as the killer intended it to be.”

Perfuma continues her wife’s statement, “That is correct. The only proof that a murder happened in the victim’s apartment last night was the body and a clean cut from a sharpened weapon not found at the scene was the cause of death.”

Glimmer pulls out a circular flash drive from her sweater dress’s pocket, “Ma’am if I may...” Angella nods at the flash drive, giving her agent permission to continue. “I have been developing a profile on a killer that matches this exact description for the past year.”

Glimmer stands up from her chair and plugs the drive into the projector’s port as she continues.

“A former Etheria army cadet known as Adora Grey left the army around the same time as the hitwoman known as ‘She-Ra’ began targeting Brightmoon officials.”

Glimmer takes the remote from Angella and presses a button, revealing the first slide.

A silhouetted female figure appears on the screen holding Adora’s golden sword, running off into an ally. “This is the only photo we have of the assailant, taken almost a year ago. Besides that I’m afraid we don’t have much to go on.”

“Do you think this ‘She-Ra’ is a free agent?” Perfuma asks.

“No, I suspect she is working for Horde.” Glimmer answers as she presses a button for the next slide. Seven slain Etherian officials, their throats slit just like Sweet Bee’s, appear in a grid on screen. Glimmer presses the button once more and Sweet Bee’s face appears in the empty slot.

“Every single victim has been a Brightmoon official that has spoken out against Horde or Prime himself,” Glimmer states.

“What did Sweet Bee do? She didn’t seem the type to speak ill of anyone...” Scorpia comments.

“She didn’t.” Peekablue answers coldly. “She never said anything bad about anyone at all.” He wipes another tear from his check. “It’s what was stolen that DT and I suspect the killer was after.”

Catra, who until now had been soaking in the new information, finally speaks. “What was stolen DT?”

Double Trouble turns towards Catra, looking her up and down in judgement before replying, “A flash drive. And before you ask, its contents are none of your concern kitten. All you need to know is that my associates and I will pay your agency heavily if you retrieve it for us.”

“That might be easier if I knew what the fuck it was I’m going to be risking my ass for.” Catra spits out of her fanged teeth.

She takes a deep breath, “I’m sorry, I didn’t get much sleep last night.” Scorpia and Perfuma look at each other knowingly as Catra continues, “In order for me and my fellow agents to do our jobs we need as much information as possible. Right now, we don’t need specifics, but you know, a general idea of the drive’s context would be helpful.”

Catra leans back in the chair arms crossed as Double Trouble rolls their eyes, “Alliance is certainly not what it used to be when you were in the field Angella and Micah. They just let anyone in now huh?”

Angella taps her fingers on the conference table to stop herself from giving into the ambassador’s taunt.

“You lost a dear friend, and Brightmoon City lost a strong leader.” Angella finally responds, “But right now what we need to focus on is finding that drive, no matter what is on it.”

Angella takes the remote from Glimmer before continuing.

“Agent Glimmer, it sounds to me like you have the best understanding of this ‘She-Ra’ woman so I want you and Agent Catra to track down a rough radius of this flash drive. Entrapta and Bow will help you tap into the signal, a 20 mile radius should be all we need for now. Glimmer, take the lead.” Glimmer nods as her and Catra stand to leave the conference room.

Angella ends the calls and turns Glimmer’s presentation onto the two screens previously occupied by their clients to allow the others to fully inspect it.

“What do you think is on the flash drive Angella? Should we approach this as a matter of security?” Scorpia asks.

“It’s a code.” Angella replies. “Sweet Bee approached Entrapta about developing an encrypted software that when decoded shows a map leading to a supposed First Ones ruin. Those two got short with you because they didn’t want to admit they didn’t know.”

Arms still crossed, Catra rolls her eyes, “Fucking typical. So since Entrapta developed the software, we know exactly where it is right?”

“Yes, we do. We have been able to trace it to a Horde basecamp in the Whispering Woods.” Angella walks closer to the screen and inspects the killing wound on Sweet Bee. “Are all her kills done with this weapon? The cuts look professional…definitely not a soldier’s training.”

“Grey is the only person I’ve found that fits the profile so far. It’s the only place we can start looking.”

“And did you build the profile before or after knowing about Adora Grey Agent?”

“ _After…_ ” Glimmer mumbles in response.

“Then we will put off tracking down this ‘She-Ra’ persona until after we have retrieved the flash drive. Is that understood Glimmer?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Good, give you research to Perfuma and Scorpia since you have first watch. Perfuma and Scorpia, you’re on desk duty until they need to be relieved.”

“Understood ma’am,” Scorpia responds.

“Once again, thank you all for coming in on such short notice. Glimmer and Catra, Entrapta is waiting for you in her lab.” Angella extends an arm towards the exit as Catra and Glimmer leave.

* * *

“Hey mad scientists! We’re entering, don’t shoot!” Catra pounds on the door as a warning before her and Glimmer head inside.

The once white and polished back wall of the laboratory is covered in black soot with an Entrapta shaped silhouette in the middle.

As the door closes behind them Catra chuckles, “Wow I was kidding but maybe I should start calling that out every time I come in here.”

“That would be advised.” Bow smiles warmly at his roommates, “Took you two long enough, was the conference call long?” He wipes some soot from his glasses on his dirty white lab coat, his deep purple button down barely reaches his jeans but is surprisingly clean compared to everything else in the room.

“No just same old ‘Etherian officials are assholes.’ Never gets old…”

“Is that in your professional opinion Agent?” Glimmer teasingly questions, “Or just because you at DT have a, oh how do you say it again… _a checkerboarded past_?”

The catgirl unsheathes her claws, “ _Their words Sparkles, not mine._ ”

Used to empty threats like this one with Catra being her partner, Glimmer rolls her eyes as the trio continue into the lab.

Catra taps her right pinky claw against a test tube with a green liquid on the middle counter of the room, the neon adding color to the all gray and black tech around them.

“Pretty isn’t it?” Entrapta pops out from below the table, a tray of matching tubes in her arms. She slides the lifted tray onto the table. “This…” she exclaims proudly, “is the scientific breakthrough Bow and I had last night! Bow, if you would.”

The purple haired woman picks up the lone test tube and stands in front of the giant screen on the right side of the room as Bow begins to type something into his computer at his desk besides her.

Changing the input, Bow’s computer screen mirrors onto the larger screen. A white grid against a black background appears with four slightly bolded white squares taking up two thirds of the screen.

“Watch this!” Entrapta tilts her head back and downs the liquid. She then turns to face the screen. The others join her in anticipation.

After 20 seconds her vitals appear on the screen, her heart rate in the left upper square, her location in the right upper square, her blood pressure in the left bottom square, and a short list of ailments in the final square. The list only reads two things: That she is hungry and suffering from lack of sleep.

A bit confused at what they are seeing, the spies stare blankly at the screen until Bow registers their confusion.

“It’s a vitals tracking potion! See, the biggest issue Entrapta and I found was that we couldn’t make a device small enough to fit inside your body and still be able to read complex vitals. But with this well…” He extends his hand towards the screen.

“You can tell Entrapta is tired and hungry? Anyone could have told you that.” Glimmer states.

“Well yes but you can tell that and even more about them for as long as the potion is in your system! That was a key part too, since you can digest the tracker there is no risk of it effecting you like a permanent implant would.” Bow explains.

“Hmmm, cool.” Catra says absentmindedly, still inspecting the screen.

“Thank you Catra.” Bow playfully sticks out his tongue at Glimmer who returns the gesture. “Ok enough show and tell, Bow switches over to the assignment screen and pulls up a file called ‘operation: sparklekitten.’

“Wait, what did that say?!” Catra squeals.

“What? Nothing!” Bow full screens the document as Catra pushes him off the computer.

“ _Operation: Sparklekitten?!_ Bow what the hell?!”

The scientist turns red and looks at his lab partner, “Should I tell them?”

Entrapta shrugs as Glimmer shoves her hands into the pockets of her dress.

“Tell us what Bow?” She presses.

Bow’s shoulder’s deflate in defeat, “That Entrapta, Perfuma, and I’s nickname for missions when it’s just the two of you is called…sparklekitten.”

A low growl comes from Catra, “Why do you four feel the need to give us a nickname? We don’t have one for Perfuma and Scorpia.”

“Maybe because they are happily married and don’t immediately change the subject when their relationship is brought up.” Bow retorts.

“Glimmer and I aren’t in a relationship, we’re just fooling around!”

“If you say so…”

“Bow! Glimmer exclaims, “We’ve been over this! Catra and I are keeping it open and casual for various good reasons that we frankly don’t need to explain to you!”

“I don’t see the problem…” Entrapta adds.

Catra points at Entrapta, “Thank you.”

Bow laughs, “I never said there was a problem! I think it’s great! ‘Sparklekitten’ started out as a joke like 6 months ago and clearly it has gotten out of hand.”

“Oh gods,” Glimmer realizes, “Do Angella and Micah know about this?”

“About you two? Yes.”

“I know they know that Bow, I meant about the nickname!”

“Probably,” Bow shrugs.

“Can we _please_ stop talking about this and get the assignment?” Catra yawns.

“Of course!” As eager to change the subject as the three others in the room Entrapta pulls out two folders and hands them to the field agents. “I took the liberty of adding Glimmer’s ‘She-Ra’ research to the file as well. That being said, there isn’t much to go on. From all accounts of eyewitnesses we are looking for a tall blonde woman who conceals a golden sword on her at all times.”

“That’s not too much to go on ‘Trapta,”

“Unfortunately it’s all we have currently which is why we need you two to stake out the Horde camp we believe she is using as her base on the outskirts of the city.”

“The flash drive’s signal has been coming from this camp since 22:00 last night, if you can’t find ‘She-Ra,’ then at least you might be able to infiltrate the camp and steal the flash drive.”

“And you’re sure the only physical description we have is that she’s blonde and tall?”

“I mean she wears a maroon trench coat, but you shouldn’t base tracking someone off of their clothing, hitwomen like She-Ra most likely go to great lengths to disguise their appearance.”

Catra hits the folder against her thigh in thought, “Yeah, you have a point there. We’ll check in with you if we find anything. Come on Glimmer.”

The two leave the laboratory.

* * *

Catra, now perched in a tree about five hundred yards away from the signal coming from the flash drive, lowers her binoculars from their watch of a possible entrance to the hidden Horde camp.

“Still nothing. How long do we have to be out here again?”

Over the earpiece in her right ear, Glimmer responds.

“ _Only two more hours. Why does Angella only put me in charge of the boring missions?_ ”

“Because your success rate on them is 100% princess.”

Glimmer groans at the nickname, “ _Stop calling me that!”_

“Aw, why? Does it get you all hot and bothered?” Catra snickers at how easy it is to get the current lead agent worked up.

“ _No! To be frank I’m still coming down from this morning. How are you so calm? Usually an interruption when you’re about to orgasm means you’re even more of an ass that usual the rest of the day.”_

“Fuck off. For your information, the job at hand has been plenty distraction enough.” She raises her binoculars again, this time adjusting her viewpoint to where Glimmer is hidden behind a fallen tree. “You still in the same position?”

Glimmer’s hand pokes out of the hiding place and waves in response.

“ _For a Horde camp there is little activity. Maybe the assassin knew the drive would be tracked and left it here?”_

“’Trapta said the drive hasn’t been activated yet, they wouldn’t have tossed it before accessing the code.” Catra drops the binoculars around her neck to roll up her dress shirt’s sleeves over her toned forearms. “So, tell me about this ‘She-Ra’ persona. And maybe start with why the fuck she’s called ‘She-Ra’.”

“ _Wow, you’re so bored you want to hear about a profile I’m working on?_ ” Catra lets out a stream of air out of her nose at Glimmer’s brattiness. “ _I actually don’t know why she’s called ‘She-Ra.’ From what I can tell it was a nickname that came from an ambassadors office and it just kept spreading around.”_

“No doubt Double Trouble’s doing.” Catra mumbles under her breath.

“ _From what you told me about them…probably. Anyway, she’s been active for about two years now, but only three slayings have been officially tied to her, although between you and me? I think the number is more like fifty._ ”

“Fifty?!” Catra reacts, nearly falling out of the branch she is sitting on. “How dangerous is this woman?”

“ _Extremely. Especially if she’s Adora Grey, which I highly suspect she is._ ”

“And why is that again? Because she was military?”

“ _She was one of Etheria’s most promising cadets until she dropped out two months before the first confirmed She-Ra kill._ ”

“Has no one heard from her since?”

“ _Not that she had many people around her before she dropped out of the army, but yes. We know she is still alive only because she has appeared on security camera’s around Brightmoon City a few times since she was last seen in person._ ”

“And why the sword?”

“ _Couldn’t tell you. From the one image I found of it, since it’s a short sword it’s very easy to conceal..._ ”

Catra spots a figure leaving a mossed over cave about three hundred yards away from her. Bringing up her binoculars once again, the catgirl watches as the figure, a blonde woman, stretches against a large boulder a few feet away from the entrance she just came out of.

The woman, wearing a white sports bra and tight red running shorts, finishes stretching her legs and begins to jog down a trail.

“ _Etheria to Catra! Hello?! Are you there?!_ ”

“Yeah sorry, going brain dead over here.” The brunette continues to watch as the runner leaps over a fallen branch, not breaking her stride.

“ _As I was saying, she must keep this thing sharp because each cut is razor thin. You wouldn’t need to be strong to make such a deep cut with a weapon like that._”

Catra slips out of listening again as she watches the blonde’s abs barely move with each new step. The woman stops her warm up at a tree about two hundred yards from the tree the spy is currently occupying. Rolling her shoulders back before grabbing onto grooves in the tree with both hands and beginning to climb, she begins her ascent.

“Holy shit.” Catra whispers, completely taken aback by the figure below her.

“ _What? Do you see something?_ ”

“Sorry. Just wow, she’s a butcher, this woman we’re after.”

“ _Catra, I was talking about Bow and Entrapta’s new invention. Are you feeling ok? Did you fall out of the tree?_ ”

“No! I’m fine!”

From her position Glimmer checks to see Catra is still indeed in the tree with her binoculars.

“ _Ok good, still there. You must have been lying earlier, you are acting weird because I didn’t finish eating you out this morning.”_

The brunette lets out a long breath both at Glimmer reminding her of their fun this morning and at the goddess of a woman in front of her.

“You got me.”

“ _Want me to take care of that for you over the radio?_ ”

“As hot as that sounds, after the whole ‘operation: sparklekitten’ thing this morning I’m starting to see why you like to keep our day jobs and our sex life separate.”

“ _That’s what did it? Not Scorpia walking in while you were fucking me from behind a few months ago?_ ”

“Oh gods don’t remind me.” Catra drags her hand down her face in embarrassment. She sees the woman reach the same height as her and begin her descent down.

“ _Once we’re back home I promise to finish what we started this morning. Bow should be asleep by then since he pulled an all nighter last night with Entrapta._ ”

“Here’s hoping.” Watching the blonde’s back muscles tense with each new grip of the body of the tree, Catra has a change of heart. “You know, on second thought, I’d be down for a little radio sex, if only to get us ready for later.”

“ _It never takes much to convince you, does it Catra?_ ”

“Not when it’s with you Sparkles,” Catra purrs, her eyes still fixated on the woman as she finally returns to the ground.

Wiping sweat from her forehead and dusting her hands off on her shorts, she begins running further into the wooded area.

“ _Catra!_ ” Glimmer screams into her ear, causing a static sound to occur and for Catra to lose her grip on the tree in surprise.

“Shit!”

At the last second, the catgirl manages to grab the branch and holds on tight. The commotion causes the blonde to turn, her eyes narrow as she spots Catra hanging onto the tree.

“ _Oh my gods did you really just fall out of the tree? What are you staring at?_ ”

Steel blue eyes meet Catra’s mismatched ones. The two women pause, unsure of what to do about the situation. The runner makes up her mind and starts to sprint towards Catra.

Glimmer watches as Catra lets go of the branch and pounces off a lower branch half way down before finally returning to the ground.

“ _Catra? What’s going on?_ ”

“I’ve been spotted, head back to your car, I’ll recon with you back at HQ.” Catra begins sprinting, desperate to lose the woman chasing her in the trees around them.

Using her feline features to her advantage, Catra unsheathes her claws and begins running on all fours over a slightly fallen over tree.

Glimmer, struggling to keep up with Catra in her sights, turns to see who her partner has been spotted by.

“ _That’s, oh my gods, that’s her. That’s Adora Grey._ ” Her eyes grow as see sees Adora take a golden dagger out of a holder under her shorts. “ _Catra she’s armed. Get up the cliff we passed when we drove in, I’ll meet you there.”_

“Stop!” Adora calls out in between pants, slightly losing speed to the hybrid.

Catra turns back momentarily to see the golden weapon. Her left foot fumbles over a rock, breaking her stride briefly. Barely managing to keep her footing, she turns to the right where she remembered the cliff she saw earlier.

“Not a chance!” Catra taunts as Adora follows her, now keeping pace.

They continue the chase through the dense forest until the brunette finally spots the cliff and Glimmer’s white car on top of it.

With her last bit of strength, and much to her lungs dismay, she bounds as fast as she can to the cliff with Adora slowly closing in.

Digging her claws into the vines, Catra quickly jumps up the ridge as Adora loses the ground she had just gained.

Sticking her dagger in between her teeth, Adora snarls as she tries to keep up with Catra.

The brunette offers a smug side smile as she continues gaining ground between her and Adora. Annoyed that she is falling behind, Adora takes the dagger out of her mouth and stabs it into the vines to attempt to pick up speed with some success.

“Who are you anyway?” The blonde shouts.

“Why would I tell you that? You’re the one chasing me blondie.” Catra spots Adora gaining ground out of the corner of her eye and looks back up to see only thirty or so yards to go until she’s at the top with Adora only twenty yards behind.

Throwing her body up to run along the last bit of cliff, Catra makes it over the edge with Adora closing in behind her. As her feet touch the top of the cliff Adora reaches her left hand out to try to grab Catra’s tail, only to graze it.

Catra jumps into Glimmer’s SUV via her open sunroof as Glimmer drives off.

Adora makes her way over the top of the cliff and takes in deep breaths, attempting to not only catch her breath, but stop her rage from forcing her to keep running even though the Magicat was now in a car.

“Cheater,” Adora spits out as she puts the dagger back into its holder under her shorts and returns back to the cliff’s edge to return to her work out.


	3. Steel Doors and Stale Bars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adora returns back to base and the agents are given their next assignment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> follow my +18 only twitter @catraxwhip for behind the scenes and general thought process for developing this story and my main twitter @emxedits for even more spop nonsense

Still almost boiling over with rage, Adora takes in five deep breaths as she focuses on the speeding away white SUV.

 _Alliance agents most likely…_ She thinks to herself as she notes the grappling hook under the rear bumper of Glimmer’s spy car.

How they had tracked her down was something Adora would have to worry about later. Right now what she needed was a cold shower and judging by the growing ache in her stomach, something to eat.

Seeing that the vehicle was out of sight by this point, the lead Horde agent approached the cliffs edge once more to carefully begin her descent. Using her golden dagger to steady herself as she lowered the lower half of her body over the edge, Adora slowly found the grooves made in the hard dirt by the mysterious Magicat.

 _How did an agency as incompetent as Alliance find me?_ She pounders as her left foot finds the next tear in the side of the cliff. _The flash drive…surely Hordak would have taken the precautions of checking for a tracker on it before beginning to decode it….Adora don’t be ridiculous, of course he didn’t._

Still scaling the cliff, the blonde shakes her head at the thought. In her, and certainly in Shadow Weaver’s, opinion, the Horde’s lead quartermaster was easily the biggest weak point in their operation.

 _Why Prime still keeps him around, I will never know._ Adora chuckles as she looks down to see she is already half way to the ground below her.

 _Alliance’s head of tech is the one advantage they have over us._ The lead agent admits to herself as she recalls the time she had met Alliance’s lead scientist as well as the agency’s cofounder, Micah, when they had come to covertly recruit at her army basecamp two years prior.

* * *

From what little Adora did remember from the informal introduction, the agency showed promise. After all, Micah was kind enough and the few inventions Entrapta had brought with her were quite impressive. Although she could never be certain, her troop’s captain, Octavia, seemed to be under the impression they were only visiting to recruit her specifically.

“ _Cadet Grey, a pleasure to finally meet you._ ” Micah smiled warmly as he brought his hand forward for Adora to shake it.

The cadet at the time nodded in agreement as she took his hand. “ _Thank you sir._ ”

“ _Walk with me, show Entrapta and I your barracks. Octavia, that will be all._ ” Micah signaled for the octopus hybrid to stand down as the trio made their way through the rest of the troop’s basecamp.

“ _If I may be so bold sir, why are you here?”_

 _“You may Cadet. As an Etherian ambassador I am here to check in on our troops. I might not be Chief of Etheria’s Forces anymore, but an old man like me still likes to visit every now and again._ ”

Micah gave Entrapta a powerful pat on the back as they continued their tour.

“ _And it so happened that one of Etheria’s lead weapons experts was dropping by today to distribute some weapons upgrades. Entrapta, do you require any assistance?_ ”

“ _Micah, you and I both know the answer to that._ ” The scientist replied with a grin as she made her way over to the camp’s tanks, her trusty screwdriver in hand.

“ _You blow up one experiment your first day as a fill-in-lab assistant…_ ” Micah chuckled until he turned towards the woman next to him whom was watching him laugh completely emotionless.

“ _Anyway. I am here Cadet because Captain Octavia spoke high praises of you at a conference last week on the stellar work you did on your mission in Thymor._ ”

Adora’s eyebrows raised, recalling the success of her mission before returning to her formal stance. “ _Nothing special there sir. Just doing my job._ ” She nodded, solidifying her claim.

“ _Well ‘just doing your job’ helped save the lives of countless Etherians who would have been swept away by that flash flood if you hadn’t had the idea to move the villagers up to higher ground on foot rather than wait for transportation vehicles.”_

Micah stopped walking noticing Entrapta quickly moving from tank to tank out of the corner of his eye before making eye contact with Adora as he continued.  
_“It’s quick thinking like that Grey that makes the difference between a good Cadet and a good Captain._ ”

“ _That is very kind of you to say sir. But I am still two years away at least from the possibility of getting that kind of promotion._ ”

Micah winked, “ _Don’t be so sure Cadet. We will be in touch._ ” Looking over at Entrapta who had made her way to her last tank upgrade, he called out to her.

“ _Entrapta!”_ He continued, “ _All set?_ ”

“ _Just one more configuration!_ ” Entrapta responded as she finished turning the bolt back onto the slab she had just removed to upgrade the tech on the inside. The bolt now secured, the scientist double tapped the metal slab with her screwdriver before returning to Micah’s side. “ _All set!_ ”

“ _Excellent._ _Cadet, I hope to hear more of your success soon._ ” He turned on his heel to leave the barracks, Entrapta by his side.

* * *

A week later, Shadow Weaver had recruited Adora in a more direct matter, something the blonde appreciated about her boss’s tactics since the moment they had met. It wasn’t until six months into her employment as a Horde agent she formally discovered Micah had visited to get a read of her before making a decision to recruit her to Alliance.

 _Me, an Alliance agent…not in a million years!_ The blonde looked up at the new morning sky to catch a breath before digging her dagger into the hard dirt once again.

After officially becoming a Horde agent, the second-in-command had taken the time to inform Adora on Horde’s adversary Alliance, the ‘proper’ and ‘snooty’ agency that was always getting in the way of Horde operations.

_Nice to see that two years later, nothing has changed._

Adora pulls her dagger out of the cliff and allows herself to fall the remaining 15 feet, absorbing the impact of her feet touching the solid ground by bouncing into a deep squat. Shaking her legs out and allowing herself to properly catch a breath, she begins walking back to the secret entrance to Horde’s Whispering Woods basecamp.

* * *

After a five minute hike back to the cave entrance, Adora takes the time to stretch out her calves against the rocky exterior of the entrance to her agency. Satisfied that the extra workout she got chasing the Alliance agent wouldn’t cause her any aches or aliments later, she pushes the greenery blocking the cave entrance aside and steps into the shaded and cool mouth of the cave.

Walking up to a shallow pool at the back of the small cave, she places a hand on a boulder next to the pool, about hip height.

Slowly, the entrance to the camp reveals itself as the steel roof of the entrance separates into two and a set of stairs rises from the watery depths.

Adora waits patiently as the stairs finally rise into place for her to enter the basecamp. A green glow suddenly forms under her hand still on the boulder, signaling that it is safe to enter. Adora takes her hand away and enters her home.

* * *

As the entrance closes behind her, a single row of green lights accent the gray steel walls of the underground Horde camp.

A Horde henchman hands her a towel. The agent nods a ‘thanks’ and uses it to wipe off her sweaty face.

 _But why were they there?_ Adora’s brow furrows in annoyance at the possibility that Alliance knows who she is. _They couldn’t know that I killed Sweet Bee…Could they?_

She tosses the sweaty towel into a bin before turning the corner towards the camp’s cantina.

 _If they know about that stupid nickname…_ Adora punches the main door’s entrance pad in annoyance causing the door to quickly rise into the ceiling as she passes under it into the main section of the lair.

* * *

_I recognized that pink and purple haired woman…if only I could place where…It certainly wasn’t with that Magicat…_

Still lost in thought, Adora barely registers the henchman handing her a cold steel gray water bottle as she enters the building’s cantina. She uncaps it to take a much needed drink, allowing some of the water to fall onto her still exposed abs.

She continues walking past the henchman who gave her the drink towards the protein station at the back of the cantina, where she knew the camp’s chef had already prepared a handful of ration bars for her.

As she walks towards the back of the dining facility, she spots her old team out of the corner of her eye.

Lonnie rips off a piece of her stale brown bar through gritted teeth before managing to swallow the excuse for food the agency feeds its lower ranked agents.

“How can they expect us to perform to their standards with gruel like this…” She mutters under her breath, just loud enough for her fellow agents Kyle and Rogelio to hear.

Rogelio, noticing out of the corner of his eye that Adora is watching the trio, grumbles a response under a casually placed hand, not allowing the lead agent to read his lips.

The blonde fights the urge to roll her eyes, wanting to hide the fact she had been eavesdropping on the conversation as she finally makes her way to the back of the room.

“Agent Grey here for a pick up.” She flashes the ID card she had tucked in her sports bra at the lizard folk behind the counter. The yellow amphibian hybrid nods as they pull out six stacked gray ration bars, neatly wrapped in white parchment paper.

Adora takes the large package and walks back towards the entrance of the cantina, feeling her old team’s eyes follow her until she exits out the gap in the gray wall she entered through.

* * *

Locking her bedroom door behind her, Adora tosses her rations onto the thin mattress against the back wall of the dark gray wallpapered room. Flicking on her desk lamp, a hazy yellow glow brightens up the left side of her living space.

She unclips her dagger’s holster and hangs it over her metal desk chair. Whipping off her sweaty sports bra, shorts, and white thong, Adora balls them up before walking over to her hamper and dropping them in as she enters the bathroom next to her bed.

Turning the shower handle just enough for it to be at full pressure, Adora unties her hair, places her hair tie on her bathroom sink, and steps into the shower.

_If they somehow managed to trace the flash drive here, they have to know I killed Sweet Bee. But who would have told them about the flash drive? Those fools the ambassador called friends didn’t know about it…Shadow Weaver was certain._

Adora takes a slightly used bar of soap from its hole in the wall and begins to lather it in her hands. Satisfied she has enough to wash herself with, Adora places the bar back and begins to rub the soap up her body starting at her calves.

 _And the driver, I know_ _I’ve run into her before. She wasn’t in the army, I would have remembered that hair. And she’s not a Brightmoon delegate…_

Finished with washing herself, Adora rinses off the suds before reaching for her 2 in 1 shampoo and conditioner. Pouring a quarter size of the liquid into her hand, she delicately lathers it and begins working it through her golden locks.

 _That Magicat was fast, I’ll give them that. We need speed like that ourselves._ The assassin recalls the few times her and her short lived team lost track of a target because of their rookie Kyle.

“Fucking Kyle.” Adora mutters under her breath as she rinses out the last of the hair product.

Turning the freezing water off, Adora wraps a white towel around herself and exits the shower to dry herself off.

* * *

An hour later, a still-in-towel Adora is startled by the beep of her intercom, nearly dropping the dagger she had been cleaning.

“ _Agent Grey, please report to the conference room at once. Agent Grey, please report to the conference room at once._ ” One of Hordak’s henchmen reports.

She finishes inspecting her dagger and rolls off her bed to get dressed. Pulling on a clean white sports bra and underwear, she picks out a white v neck and tailored khakis and throws them on.

The agent then picks up a hair tie off her desk and pulls her hair into a tight ponytail as she quickly paces out the door.

* * *

“Adora, thank you for joining us.” Shadow Weaver greets her as Adora nods at both her boss and the agency’s lead inventor, Hordak.

“Well done on your retrieval of the flash drive Agent, I finalized decoding it an hour ago. I am pleased to report that our source was correct, the location of this supposed ‘super weapon’ was encrypted on it.” Hordak reports dryly.

“Watch your tone Hordak, this desire for the weapon comes from Horde Prime himself,” Shadow Weaver takes a sip of her pinot noir. “I would hate to have to tell him you don’t believe in his cause.”

Although Adora has nothing but the upmost respect for her boss, her continuous drinking habit was the one thing she raises an eyebrow at. After all, it _was_ only nine in the morning. But from what Adora had seen the past two years she had served under Shadow Weaver, the habit didn’t seem to affect her work, something Adora was grateful for. She couldn’t imagine working under anyone else here, _especially_ the shut in quartermaster that sat across from Shadow Weaver.

Hordak’s eyes narrow at his boss as Adora takes a seat next to the scarred woman.

“Thank you, to you both.” She pulls on her v neck to straighten it as she sits forward in her chair to match Shadow Weaver’s stiff posture.

“Unfortunately Adora, decrypting the drive only lead us one step closer to the weapon. According to Hordak’s intel from the code, we still need to find an encoded gemstone to access the chamber the weapon is stored in underneath Etheria’s surface.” Setting down her glass, Shadow Weaver presses a red button in front of her, turning on the large presentation screen at the far end of the table.

A deep red diamond shaped gemstone appears on the screen in front of a green grid over the black background of the screen.

“The Black Garnet,” Hordak states as Shadow Weaver slides a gray assignment folder over to Adora. “According to the drive, it serves as an access key. Without it we will not be able to enter the chamber the weapon is stored in.”

“Can we not just have one of your teams dig through the barrier?” The agent asks.

“No. From the information on the drive it appears that if we access the room any other way, it its set to self-destruct the weapon inside.” Hordak responds, “ _Classic first ones making everything needlessly complicated._” He mutters under his breath.

Choosing to ignore the comment, the head of operations takes another sip from her glass, Shadow Weaver clicks onto the next slide of the presentation. “Our sources say the last known location of this gemstone was in the outskirts of Brightmoon City in a burrow known as ‘Beast Island.”

“That was the burrow that was destroyed in a fire three or so years ago correct?” Adora asks.

“Correct. The only reason the fire didn’t spread to the rest of the greater city was that it is surrounded by the city’s rivers. Because of the disaster that occurred there all those years ago, I would be surprised if you managed to find the Black Garnet there, but perhaps you will find success in discovering whomever is, let’s say, ‘holding onto it’ for us.” The woman smirks at her attempt at humor as Hordak rolls his eyes.

“I’ll go at once ma’am,” Adora responds, side eyeing the quartermaster as she does so.

“Excellent, I’ll have a airship brought to the deck at once for you.” Hordak states. “Will you be needing a pilot? Perhaps Agent Lonnie?”

“No, her involvement would only lead to a greater chance for error. We are so close to the weapon, I won’t have foolish mistakes that could have been prevented get in our way.” With that, Adora stands to leave the conference table before exiting the room.

* * *

Returning to her quarters, Adora puts on her trench coat and slides her sword into its place on the inner left side. Leaving the garment open, she walks over to her desk and picks up her black tablet.

She holds out the tablet in front of her face to allow the device to scan it. With a *ping,* the tablet opens to Horde’s database portal. Selecting a folder titled ‘VEHICLE PLATE ANALYSIS’ the tablet opens to a black screen with a red search bar in the middle.

Typing in Glimmer’s plate number, the agent screenshots the information the tablet pulls up before folding the tablet in half by its hinges and sliding it into the opposite side of her jacket from her sword.

Going to her mirror once more, Adora runs a hand through her ponytailed hair and leaves the room.

* * *

Meanwhile back at Alliance, Glimmer and Catra sit down for their early afternoon meeting with Micah and Angella.

“Agent Glimmer, you are certain the woman chasing you was Adora Grey?” Angella confirms.

“Yes, there is no doubt in my mind ma’am.”

“And what about you Agent Catra?” The head of operations turns towards the brunette.

“Frankly ma’am, I didn’t exactly get a good look at who was chasing me since, you know, I was being chased. But I trust Glimmer’s judgement, if she says it was her, then it was her.”

Angella takes a breath and turns towards her husband, “Well I suppose that answers that question.”

“Yes, it does.” Micah stands from his chair to address the other women. “Since the Horde has the flash drive, there is little doubt in my mind their quartermaster has decoded it by now. We can assume they are already after the ‘Black Garnet.’”

Angella slides two cream colored folders to her agents as Micah continues.

“The ‘Black Garnet’ serves as a key to the first ones tech the Horde is presumably after. Without this gemstone, they cannot access what’s inside without causing it to self-destruct.”

“What is inside?” Catra asks.

“A weapon of some kind, that’s all Sweet Bee could tell us.” Angella answers dryly, “No doubt something powerful or Prime wouldn’t be after it.”

“As your intel will tell you, the tech was last stored in a first ones museum that was on Beast Island. As both of you know, that area of Brightmoon was destroyed during a siege on the city by an alien force. Most likely it is not there, but whomever took it was sure to have left something behind. Your mission is to find those clues and report back.” Micah sits back down in his chair and presses the intercom in front of him. “Agent Bow, please report to the conference room for your next assignment.”

“ _Copy that sir._ ” The lab tech responds.

“Bow will be joining us?!” Glimmer asks excitedly, it had been a few months since her best friend had joined them in the field.

“Yes, since we know the Horde is most likely heading to Beast Island as well, I want to send you in with some backup. And him and Entrapta want to take this opportunity to test out their new health gagging pill.”

“It’s a pill now?” Catra quips.

“Yes, apparently it allows the mixture to last longer in the subjects system.” Angella chuckles. “I got an earful this morning from Entrapta, it looks incredible. What that woman will come up with next only she knows.”

Bow then opens the door to the conference room and shuts the door behind him, “You had an assignment for me?”

“Bow, glad you could join us.” Micah smiles, “Agents Catra and Glimmer will be needing back up on an investigation assignment. How quickly can you ship out?”

“Five minutes sir, just need my field clothes and three of Entrapta and I’s tech pills, you both are fine being Guiana pigs right?” He points at his fellow agents.

Catra sighs, “Sure.”

Glimmer crosses her arms mockingly, “We’ve been the test subjects for how many experiments while employed here? You really think we’d say no to a little pill?”

“All I need is a verbal confirmation Glimmer.”

“Of course dummy.” Glimmer lovingly lightly slaps Bow’s exposed abs as she walks past him to leave. “Now come on, I’d like to get there before _She-Ra_.” Glimmer laughs at the nick name before putting her hand on the door handle at the entrance to the white room.

Angella stands to stop them, “Actually Agent Glimmer, if you wouldn’t mind staying behind for a few minutes.” Glimmer stops in her tracks and walks back towards the table, pulse raising over why her boss would want to talk to her alone.

The head of operations continues, “Catra, you take the lead on this assignment.”

The Magicat nods in understanding as her, Bow, and Micah leave the room to give the women space.

As the door closes behind them, Angella sits down next to Glimmer at the conference table.

“What is it ma’am?”

“You can wipe that panicked look off your face Glimmer, you aren’t in trouble.” Angella smiles warmly as her agent’s shoulders relax. “I just wanted to ask you, point blank, how did you know Adora Grey’s alias was She-Ra?”

“Micah told me you and him almost recruited her for Alliance, but she disappeared before you could make an offer. Ever since I have been working on tracking her down, fearing the worst.”

“The worst?”

“That such a skilled woman like her is being employed by Horde.”

Angella nods in agreement as Glimmer continues.

“Following the pattern of kills done by this mysterious She-Ra alias and lining them up with the few sightings of Grey…I knew it overlapped too well for it to be a coincidence. And last night confirmed my suspicions.”

“Sweet Bee’s murder…what about it?”

“She was tracking her last night. While working on this mission independently, I went undercover as a waiter at a café Grey happened to be enjoying a cup of coffee at last night.”

“Let me guess, the café just so happened to be across the square from the restaurant the ambassador had her last meal at.”

“The very same.”

“And when you ran into her today, did she recognize you?”

“No, we should be in the clear.”

“What makes you say that?”

“I wore a wig ma’am, I know how uncommon our hair is.”

Angella chuckles, “Yes, how I found an agent with my same hair color I will never know. I’m impressed Glimmer, you have done exceptionally well.”

“Thank you ma’am, that means a lot.”

“Don’t think your work goes unnoticed agent, Micah and I both see a promising future for you here at Alliance. And we are lucky to have you.”

They stand and shake hands before Glimmer leaves to join the rest of her team.

* * *

A few minutes later, Glimmer enters the lab and is greeted by Bow carefully making adjustments to his black crossbow. The tech expert has changed out of his work clothes and lab coat and into a black, tight, sleeveless crop top and purple cargo pants.

As he turns at the sound of the door opening, he nods at Glimmer before continuing to pick at the weapon with a small tool.

“There you are Sparkles,” Catra greets her partner, the Magicat now in a tight, maroon, turtleneck and black leggings, her tail swaying from side to side as she walks towards Glimmer.

“Get a room you two.” Bow teases as he finishes adjusting his crossbow to his liking.

“I-we’re not doing anything!” Catra stammers, flustered at the comment.

“Yes but your heart rate has raised since Glimmer walked in!” Entrapta beams, pointing at the large black screen with Catra and Bow’s vitals on it.

“ _I hate this stupid thing already_ ,” Catra mutters under her breath. “Here princess, your turn.” She tosses a green pill to Glimmer who inspects it for a moment before looking at her two mission partners.

“How are you guys feeling? Any effect?”

“Don’t worry Glimmer!” Entrapta pipes up, “I’ve had one in my system since right after you left this morning and I feel great!”

Glimmer shrugs and pops the pill into her mouth. After a few seconds, a third line appears on the screen, showing the third agent’s vitals.

“Alright, you guys are all set! Bow, I’ve had one of my bots prepare you a ship, coordinates are already programmed in, its waiting for you in the garage. Good luck agents!” Entrapta waves as the three leave the lab.

* * *

Fixing the collar of her gray turtleneck, Glimmer jogs to catch up to Bow and Catra as they make their way through Alliance’s garage.

“So _lead agent_ what is our mission?” Bow asks.

“You’re such a dork Bow.” Catra chuckles, “It’s just an investigation mission, look for clues of this ‘Black Garnet’s whereabouts, try not to fall through the debris all over the island. Pretty clear cut.”

“Aw, come on. You’re the lead agent here Catra! We’re the _pizzazz_?” Glimmer teases.

Catra rolls her eyes, “It’s been a long day, when we get there, I’ll be chalk full of fucking pizzazz don’t worry princess.”

Suddenly, Glimmer lets out a blood curdling scream. Catra’s hair and tail stand straight out in response.

“Gods Glimmer, I know you don’t like the nickname but-”

“No, Catra, look…” Glimmer points her finger as Bow and Catra follow her gaze.

As they follow the line pointed out by Glimmer’s finger, they find Adora’s golden dagger sticking out of the front tire of Catra’s motorcycle.


	4. You’re Not My Assignment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The three agents head to Beast Island to hunt down the last known location of the 'Black Garnet'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> follow my +18 only twitter @catraxwhip for behind the scenes and general thought process for developing this story and my main twitter @emxedits for even more spop nonsense

Catra’s senses are on high alert as her and her team carefully inspect the area for any other signs of Adora.

“Clear,” Bow calls from the second level of the garage as he enters the prepared ship.

“Clear!” Glimmer exclaims as she jogs up to the second level from the first to join Bow.

“Clear…” Catra breathes out, pulling out the dagger from her wheel as it puffs out another stream of air as it flattens. Tucking the weapon into her belt she runs on all fours to leave the agency via the ship.

* * *

As the Magicat enters she sees Bow press a few buttons on the control panel and the ship begins to create a dull hum as it prepares for take-off.

Glimmer, her legs kicked up onto the back of Bow’s pilot chair in front of her, turns slightly as she watches Catra sit down next to her in the other seat behind Bow’s and slouch.

“Don’t pout. Like Entrapta won’t outfit your bike with new tires.” Glimmer rolls her eyes as Bow initiates the ship to rise into the air, the roof of the garage opening up to allow them to take off.

“Oh, I’ve already asked her to put on ‘dagger proof’ ones.” He smiles. “She had never heard of them but ‘is up to the challenge!’”

Catra can’t help but smile at their quartermaster’s devotion to her craft. “We are pretty lucky to have her aren’t we? But it’s not the popped tire that bugs me, it’s that she found us _that quickly._ ” Catra swivels in her chair to face Glimmer before continuing, “I mean you’ve been tracking ‘She-Ra’ for how long and weren’t able to figure out who she is officially until this morning.”

Glimmer raises an eyebrow, “Oh no, I didn’t officially find her. You did while you were ogling at her while she was working out.”

“You WHAT?!” Bow yelps as the ship leaves the garage and heads into the skyline of Brightmoon City

“Shut up. I did not!” Catra crosses her arms.

“Bull-fucking-shit.” Glimmer chuckles, always entertained at getting the Magicat flustered. “You gave us away because you were so overtaken by her abs!”

Bow turns towards Glimmer, still perplexed at the conversation.

“In Catra’s defense, they were some _insane abs_.” Glimmer admits.

“ _Trouble in ‘sparklekitten_ _paradise_ ’” Bow mumbles under her breath. Catra chooses to ignore the comment.

“Oh I don’t care,” Glimmer brushes him off. “As we said before we aren’t anything serious. Although…I guess we have never discussed if its ok to sleep with the enemy…”

“ _Sparkles…_ ” Catra growls.

Glimmer laughs, “Look all I’m saying is, it’s fine. Just promise me you won’t get distracted again and thrown off a cliff or something.”

“Do I have to?”

Glimmer kicks her feet off of Bow’s chair to playfully kick out at Catra who turns away just in time. The two girls continue rough housing as the ship and Bow continue taking them to Beast Island.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the destroyed burrow of Brightmoon City, Adora steps out of her one person ship, leaving her coat inside, and begins to survey the area.

Walking away from the gray ship into a neighboring field, she adjusts her sword to a holster on her left hip, before fixing her hair.

 _Good, looks like my little visit to Alliance kept them distracted._ Adora smiles at she pulls out her tablet and unfolds it to begin mapping out the coordinates to the possible location of the Black Garnet.

* * *

“Five minutes until landing, Princess, care to share with the class what we need to know if we run into ‘She-Ra’ again?”

Ignoring the nickname, Glimmer presses a button on her chair’s armrest and the same slide from their first meeting that day pops up on a screen above the ship’s dashboard.

“Nothing I haven’t told you all already…Adora Grey is a former Etherian soldier, specializing in hand to hand combat, _We know She-Ra uses a golden short sword on her victims_. Disappeared around the time we can assume she joined the Horde instead of Alliance. Besides a few sightings in the past two years, nothing really else to go on.”

“Wait, what was that about joining Alliance?” Catra asks.

“Oh right! Micah told me that soon after he recruited me. Like me, she has a background in strategy. Apparently it came down to the two of us and I got the job since she disappeared.”

“Glimmer, that’s not the only reason you got hired.” Bow corrects.

“I know, I know. I phrased that badly. But it’s true, she was very close to becoming an Alliance agent.”

“Hmm” Catra nods as she stands up from her chair to watch as the ship slowly begins its decent into the busted and broken ruins of Beast Island. “Darla Five, did Entrapta program the possible Black Garnet quadrant to your GPS?”

The ship’s voice command responds, “ _Yes Agent Catra. The last quadrant of BRIGHTMOON CITY burrow: BEAST ISLAND to have an imprint of the first ones tech known as the BLACK GARNET is the south west quadrant. Would you like me to change course?_ ”

“Negative,” Catra commands. “Thank you Darla Five”

The ship continues its decent.

* * *

Adora, also making her way to the south west quadrant, her ship being on the border of the north and south west quadrant, closely follows her tablet’s GPS as she steps through the ruins of what looks to be a training facility.

White track marks and a dozen or so still-in-place bricks frame the room as the blonde walks through it. Stepping over one of the taller broken walls, she continues walking as she enters a dense, and also destroyed, forest.

* * *

Darla Five settles into the broken concrete as the three agents exit the ship. Bow hands his two partners a white tracker with a purple pulsing light on the end of it. A black and purple radar screen sits under the button and a large clip covers the other side of the device. The two women clip it to their belts as Bow clips his to his shirt. Glimmer and Bow then look towards Catra for a command.

“Bow, you take the higher vantage point from what’s left of the buildings, Glimmer, stick to the ground, and I’ll take the tree line.” Tapping her ear piece three times to wake it up as the others do the same, Catra issues another command. “Communications online. Entrapta, Scorpia, and Perfuma do you copy?”

The three current desk agents respond in their respective agents ear, Bow with Entrapta, Glimmer with Scorpia, and Catra with Perfuma.

“ _Copy!_ ” The three state almost in unison.

“Excellent.” Catra points towards Bow. “Let’s set it up so we are only with our communications partner and the other two field agents.

Bow nods and takes out his tablet to make the adjustments.

“Alright team, the old home of the Black Garnet is somewhere in this quadrant, Let’s go find it before the Horde does.” Catra claps her hands together before running up a nearby tree.

Bow fires a grapple crossbow onto the roof of a mostly-still-standing building and rides it up.

Glimmer takes out her lavender staff, expands it, and begins running towards the same cluster of buildings as Bow.

* * *

An hour later, Glimmer uses her staff to help her get to the other side of some fallen stone work in what looks to be the main square of the south west quadrant of Beast Island, her communication partner Scorpia filling the woman in on all the aspects of the scorpion hybrid’s life. All of them.

“ _…so that’s when Perfuma and decided, you know what’s better that one roof garden? Two roof gardens!_ ”

“You didn’t.” Glimmer smiles, happy for the distraction of Scorpia’s married life radioing through her ear piece.

“ _We did!_ ” Scorpia lets out a deep laugh. “ _And you know what? We still don’t have enough space._ ”

“Well that’s what happens when your wife is the best green thumb in the metropolitan area…and you live in a metropolitan area. But you know what?” Glimmer pushes a loose brick out of the way of a door into one of the destroyed buildings as her tracker begins to let out a steady beep. “Let me talk to Bow and Catra, I’m sure they’d be down to give you our flat’s roof space, as long as you two would be willing to share some of the produce!”

“ _Glimmer_ ,” Scorpia lets out an appreciative breath. “ _That would…that would just be fantastic. Thank you_.” The white haired woman sniffs.

“Oh now, don’t be getting all emotional on me. You’re my radar, remember?”

Scorpia collects herself, “ _Right right. Sorry. You’re all clear. And don’t bother with that building, Bow’s already cleared it out_.”

“ _Damn he is fast._ ” Glimmer mutters as she watches the archer 400 yards away grapple into another ruined building.

* * *

“Entrapta, I don’t know what you put in my coffee this morning _but I am feeling good!_” Bow chuckles as he tucks into a ball, rolling into his landing on the 5th floor of the tenth building he cleared that day.

“ _You know Bow. For once I didn’t put anything in your coffee this morning. Well, besides the usual four packets of sugar._ ” Entrapta admits.

“Really?! I don’t know what it is then.” Bow begins making his way through the building, his eyes on the tracker which is lightly pulsing

“ _As much as I enjoy you being my lab partner_ … _maybe you just missed being in the field. It has been a while_.”

“Yeah, maybe that’s it…Hey, how are the team’s readings?”

“ _Clear as day! Everyone seems to have normal vitals, Catra’s heart rate is a little quicker, but well, she is jumping through a tree line at the moment so that is understandable. You though my friend could use some water in about thirty minutes._ ”

“Noted. Thanks Entrapta.”

Switching communication channels by holding a button on his earpiece, Bow taps into the main channel.

“Catra, Glimmer, do you copy?”

“ _Copy,_ ” The two women say in unison.

“North eastern part of the quadrant clear. You two find anything?”

“ _Negative._ ” Glimmer reports.

“ _I’m tracking a signal I picked up from the south western part of the quadrant. Seems promising. You two should head to the south east, the north western part is the river. Doubt anything is there._ ”

“Understood, Glimmer want a ride?”

“ _Yeah I guess, it’s better than fucking walking there. I really need to talk to Entrapta about a smaller field vehicle…_”

“Noted!” Bow beams, happy at all the work he and Entrapta have gotten from today alone.

 _“Thank you, sending you my location now._ ” Glimmer reports as the tracker begins to pulse pink in Glimmer’s direction.

* * *

Catra pounces lightly onto a neighboring oak tree and checks her tracker for any change to the signal. Seeing it is still slowly building, she jumps down using the branches to break the what would have been an otherwise costly fall.

“So, tell me again why it’s so important that you needed _two roof gardens_?”

“ _For more vegetation choices silly!_ ” Perfuma chuckles at the, for her, obvious question.

“We live in a modern city ‘fuma. Have you never heard of a grocery store?”

“ _Hardy har har. Of course I have. Scorpia and I just want to try to leave less of an impact on the environment. You and Glimmer should think about it!_ ”

Catra sighs, “Glimmer and I aren’t a couple Perfuma, we’ve been over this.”

“ _I didn’t say you were! I just meant that since you two live together and Bow is never home. It is_ _interesting your brain went right to that though_ …”

“For the fifth time today, stop analyzing my emotions via the communication channel _agent_.”

“ _Wow pulling the ‘agent’ card. Really letting your current status as lead agent get to your head there huh Catra?_ ”

“Oh you know it.”

The two laugh as Catra enters through a hole in the roof of a black, destroyed, modern building, her tracker’s beeping still going strong.

* * *

“And here we are!” Bow announces as Glimmer and him grapple down into the untracked quadrant.

“Thanks again Bow,” Glimmer gives him a pat on the back. “I’ll holler if I need anything. Looks like there isn’t much here anyway.”

Glimmer jogs off as Bow shoots his grapple arrow into a building in the opposite direction from his partner.

* * *

Hacking her way through the dense brush on the outskirts of the more southeastern part of the quadrant, Adora pants at the hot sun, just settling into the early afternoon sky. Taking a moment to wipe her sweaty brow with the back of her hand, she spots a small stream in front of her as she enters a more ‘residential’ part of the quadrant.

Kneeling down to run the cool water down her face and the back of her neck, Adora takes in the ruins in front of her.

 _Why Hordak didn’t give me a tracker, I will never understand_. Adora thinks to herself as she starts _yet another_ investigation for the Black Garnet in each of the destroyed buildings.

As she walks closer, she ducks quickly as she sees the pink and purple haired woman from earlier that day step out of one of the buildings, a white tracker in her hand.

“ _You have to be kidding me._” She mumbles to herself as she continues staying crotched to remain out of sight.

Pulling out her short sword, Adora sticks to a low wall as she continues her slow approach to the other agent.

* * *

Retracting his grapple bow back into his quiver, Bow takes the tracker off of his shirt and begins to survey the area. The tracker keeps hold of a steady, slowly building beat as he pushes his way through one of the busted doors.

* * *

Meanwhile, down on the ground, Glimmer switches her communication channel to a private channel, wanting to have some fun with her lead agent.

“Lead Agent Catra, do you copy?”

“ _Hey there Sparkles, find anything yet or did you just miss me?_ ” Catra purrs.

Glimmer rolls her eyes, “Maybe I had something else in mind, _Lead Agent_ …” The pastel haired woman hears a low growl come from the Magicat, “Sorry, didn’t catch that.”

“ _You really are a tease, you know that?_ ”

“Oh you love it.” Glimmer giggles, “Plus I felt bad I wasn’t able to _fully_ return the favor to you this morning.”

“ _Ah so that is what you had in mind then huh?_”

“Nothing too scandalous…”

“ _Of course not, we wouldn’t want that._ ”

“Perhaps just a _teaser_ of what I have planned for you tonight…how does that sound?”

“ _Like music to my ears, lay it on me._ ”

“I was thinking I could cook dinner tonight, simmer some tilapia.”

“ _Maybe a little wine?_ ”

“It’s like you’re reading my mind. Wait, Entrapta hasn’t come up with that tech yet right?”

“ _Do you really think I would tell you if she had?_ ”

“Touché. Anyway, then I’d take you back to my room and finish what we started this morning.” Glimmer’s cheeks blush at the thought.

“ _If I recall when Angella called your head was in between my legs…_ ”

“That’s correct, so it only makes sense that we start off that way but after I was thinking…since we will have more time…”

“ _Go on. Don’t be shy._ ”

“I was thinking of fucking you from behind…with the purple one.”

“ _The…the purple one?!_ ”

“Oh now, don’t tell me you of all people are at a loss for words.”

“ _Shut up_.”

“Why don’t you make me?” Glimmer looks up at Bow exiting the building he had been investigating and waves. The tech master waves back and pulls out his bow to prepare to shoot his grapple again.

As he does, he sees a figure crotched and running up behind Glimmer. His eyes grow as he pulls out a regular arrow, draws and fires.

Glimmer yelps in surprise as the arrow flies over her shoulder, following its trajectory she watches as Adora catches the arrow, half a foot away from her left breast. She glares up at Bow as she tosses the arrow to the ground and holds up her sword to attack her target.

The pink and purple hair woman’s eyes bulge out her head as she realizes who is trying to kill her.

“You!” She stammers out as her staff and Adora’s sword collide.

Grunting against the resistance, Adora and Glimmer’s eyes met. In an instant, the assassin places the woman in front of her.

 _The waiter from last night…_ The blonde pieces together.

“You?” Adora repeats in a slightly more confused tone.

“ _Glimmer?! What’s going on?!_ ” Catra shouts into Glimmer’s earpiece.

“Grey’s here too.” Glimmer manages to get out as she finally pushes the sword off of her staff, causing Adora to step back slightly to regain her footing.

“ _Shit. I’ll be right there.”_

“No! Keep searching, Bow and I have got this.” Out of the corner of her eye she sees Bow grapple down to the ground and pull a smoke arrow from his quiver.

Adora, noticing Glimmer’s focus takes the opportunity to swipe out at the slightly distracted woman. The blade just misses cutting Glimmer’s shirt as she leaps back just in time.

Bow fires at Adora, the arrow going off two feet behind her. Glimmer jumps back again, this time with more height as the arrow lands, causing a ten foot smoke cloud to form around the two.

Glimmer holds her breath as she gets out of the smoke as Bow helps her flank Adora. The archer pulls out a regular arrow and aims it at the cloud.

The blonde coughs as the smoke eventually clears to find herself in between the two agents who are slowly closing their distance. As they approach the outskirts of where the smoke cloud had been, Adora finally catches her breath and glares at them.

“Alliance agents I’m guessing?”

“Horde scum I’m guessing?” Glimmer spits back.

Adora chuckles, “And a mouth on you too.” She lets out two more deep coughs and spits on the ground in front of Glimmer, “This will be fun.”

The sword wielder brings her hand down on Glimmer’s staff hard causing the weapon to break in half and the blade to cut her slightly on her right upper thigh.

Glimmer hitches her breath in surprise and pain as Bow fires his arrow at Adora’s right shoulder.

Without looking she deflects it with her sword as Glimmer adjusts her hands on her, now two, short staffs.

“Try again archer.” Adora’s brow furrows as Bow fires two arrows quickly at her, the second grazing her shoulder.

Not reacting to her new wound Adora runs towards Bow, jumping up at the last second to bring her golden blade down on the archer.

* * *

Now desperate to get back to her fellow agents, Catra quickly runs on all fours towards the cluster of buildings her tracker is directing her to.

 _Come on you two, just hold on a little longer. I’m closing in, I can feel it._ She thinks to herself as her tracker’s beeps begin to quicken as she passes a lavender still-mostly-in-tact building. Turning on her back left foot, Catra rushes inside as her tracker starts beeping consistently.

Switching her communicator onto the main channel, she calls in.

“Team. I think I’ve found it. Entrapta. Scorpia. What’s going on with your agents?”

“ _They’re still defending themselves from Grey._ ” Scorpia reports.

“ _Bow has only twenty arrows left. Catra, hurry!_ ” Entrapta pleads.

“Understood. Tell them I’ll be there as soon as I can. And if they can’t hold her off, return to base. It’s not worth it. That’s an order.”

“ _I’ll relay the information Catra._ ” Perfuma states.

“Thank you Perfuma. I’ll call in as soon as I have more information.”

Catra then runs up the stairs as the beeping grows even more consistent on her tracker

* * *

Now closing in on the 30th flight of stairs, Catra stops to catch her breath as her communicator goes off.

“ _Catra! Do you copy?_ ” Perfuma’s voice comes in through the earpiece in a panic.

“Perfuma, I copy. What’s going on?”

“ _Glimmer and Bow managed to grapple out of there, but they lost sight of She-Ra. Last they saw she was heading in your direction. Be on guard._ ”  
“Understood.” Catra extends her right claws as she perks up her other ear for any hint at the assassin heading towards her. “What’s their status?”

“ _Minor scrapes and bruises. Nothing of major concern. But that blade is sharp, it cut Glimmer’s staff clean in half._” Entrapta reports, “ _Be careful Catra._ ”

“I will ‘Trapta. I’m going to go dark so I don’t give away my location. I’ll call in with any updates.”

“ _Roger that_.” Perfuma closes the communication channel.

The brunette looks down at her tracker who’s beeping becomes quicker as soon as it draws near a door way to the 34th floor. She follows the signal down a long light blue hallway until her tracker tells her to veer right into a large, half intact, computer room.

Entering the room with caution, Catra notices a large diamond shaped holder at the back of the room. A titanium metal grate hangs open over the hole, showing the shape of the object that was housed there some time ago.

“ _The Black Garnet,_ ” The catgirl whispers to herself, her left hand running over the diamond shape cut into the wall.

Turning around to investigate the rest of the room, she is surprised to find most of the old tech lining the room is covered in white tape that reads ‘PROPERTY OF THE KINGDOM OF SNOWS.’

“Heiress Frosta…of fucking course.” Catra chuckles, slightly annoyed at having to deal with the old client of Alliance’s. Frosta’s family had used Alliance resources since the beginning, and it was long suspected by the other agents that her family had loaned Angella and Micah a significant amount of money to start their covert ops. It was the only explanation why whenever their agents were assigned security detail for Frosta’s many events they barely had to pay a dime.

In Catra’s opinion, Frosta was alright enough, especially for someone who came from such an enormous amount of wealth, but Glimmer couldn’t stand the fifteen year old. The few times she had been assigned security detail for Frosta specifically, the agent compared it to babysitting duty, which in retrospect was completely fair.

Catra enjoyed talking to Frosta, she’d never admit it, but she found the teen entertaining, even if most of her stories were about events she was only able to attend because of her parent’s status. The brunette had a feeling that Frosta enjoyed her company, or any company for that matter, as well.

Wrapping a three foot piece of the tape around her pointer finger, she slips the evidence into her pocket and turns to leave, only to find a held out golden short sword almost collide with her chest.

Pouncing away from the weapon towards the back of the room the Black Garnet used to occupy, she looks up to meet eyes with the sword’s blonde wielder for the second time that day.

“Adora Grey, we finally meet.”

“Alliance Agent Catra.” Adora lowers the sword slightly, not seeing a direct threat in the feline woman.

“How do you know my name?”

“I read your file, your database is very easy to access.”

“Why are you here?”

“That’s a stupid question, we both know we are after the same thing.”

“The Black Garnet,” They say in unison.

“You know, stabbing your dagger into my ride was a dick move, but at least it gave me a handy weapon.” Catra takes the dagger out of her belt, sliding her left finger over the body of the blade, away from the sharp edge.

Adora’s eyes narrow, “Maybe you shouldn’t have flaunted your ride all over BCTV. Now, give that back.”

“Make me _She-Ra…_ ” Catra cocks an eyebrow.

Adora lunges at Catra, her sword slicing diagonally at the brunette who ducks out of the way sending the blade into the wall behind her.

Dagger in her right hand, she extends the claws in her left and faces Adora as the blonde turns around, surprised at the Magicat’s reflexes.

She swings her sword madly again as Catra uses her agility to get out of the way with ease, Adora’s strikes readable to her from a mile away.

The assassin continues slashing up the room as Catra continues on the defensive. Pieces of tech fly all around them as bright red sparks fill the room as the tech meets its fate by Adora’s blade.

The Horde Agent, now out of breath, and annoyed that Catra has been able to evade her strikes the entirety of the fight, takes in a deep breath to quickly collect herself as she focuses on where the catgirl’s next leap will be.

Now out of her rage vision, Adora picks up the pattern, and makes on final ‘mad’ swing horizontally in Catra’s direction. The brunette leaps in the opposite direction, just as Adora figured she might. The blonde stops mid swing and brings the weapon down on the surprised Alliance agent who manages to stop the swing using the dagger and both her arms, back up into what she assumes is a wall behind her, only to find it to be a wall length window Adora broke moments before.

The assassin, seeing the brunette’s predicament, takes one step forward, causing Catra to step back, into the window sill. Continuing to put pressure on her sword, Adora sees the struggle in Catra’s eyes and smiles.

The brunette, now unable to hold against the weight of the sword, drops the dagger as the sword slashes down, just missing her as she uses her now free hands to hold herself in the window.

Adora holds the blade up to Catra’s chin, their eyes meeting once again as the two woman pant to catch their breaths.

The catgirl breaks the stare first to look down at the sword before returning to the icy blue eyes.

“Well She-Ra, looks like you won.”

“It’s Adora,” The blonde corrects. “And you’re not my assignment.”

She flicks the blade up, cutting Catra’s chin lightly, not enough to draw blood, but enough for the brunette to be caught off guard and fall back, out of the building.

Adora leans out the window to watch as her enemy falls into the darkness of the forest below her.

Taking out her cell, Adora pins the location of the room and calls Lonnie.

“I found the former housing of the Black Garnet. It’s this building on the 34th floor. Get your team here as soon as possible.”

Ending the call before Lonnie has the chance to even answer, she slides the phone back into a zippered pocket and goes to leave the building.

* * *

Catra screams as she falls into the thick tree line rapidly approaching her. Turning herself onto her stomach as she descends, she reaches out for a nearby branch to attempt to break the fall. Slamming her left wrist into the branch she cries out in pain her shoulder nearly pops out of its socket.

Unable to hold onto the branch with the now hurt arm, she continues falling, slightly more slowly as the leaves and branches offer an excuse for cushions as she falls to the ground.

After what seems like an eternity, her body finally hits the hard dirt ground, knocking her out in the process.

* * *

Two hours later she comes to. Letting out a long groan, Catra attempts to move her feet, only to find her right foot unable to move without a worrying amount of pain. Sitting herself up and dragging herself to a nearby tree with her one good arm, she turns her communicator back on.

“This…this is Agent Catra. Is..is anyone there?” She calls out weakly.

“ _Catra?!_ ” Glimmer’s worried voice breaks through. “ _What happened? Your vitals are horrible! Are you hurt?!_ ”

Looking down at her mangled body, the brunette forces a smile. “Not too bad I swear.” She turns off the communicator as she lets out a painful ‘some-ribs-are-clearly-broken’ cough before turning it back on. “I uh…I did fall out of a building though.”

“ _You what?!_ ” Glimmer screams into her ear, causing Catra to wince. “ _We’re coming back to for you._ ”

Catra hears a click in front of her.

“No need for that, I’ve found a ride…” Catra turns off the communicator and lifts up her arms, her left only be raised about a foot or so in pain.

Lonnie, her pistol still pointed at the Magicat, raises an eyebrow, “You must be the Alliance agent Adora pushed out the window.”

Looking up to try to spot the window, her new prisoner fell out of, Lonnie returns her focus onto Catra.

“I’m Lonnie.” Seeing Catra is far to hurt to attack, she lowers the weapon. “Can you walk?”

Catra shakes her head ‘no’ and attempts to move her foot to show the injury.

“Rogelio! Get over here!” The buff lizard folk joins his fellow agent with their third teammate, Kyle, in tow.

Lonnie mutters something unintelligible to Catra to her companions and Rogelio moves to pick up the hurt woman.

Catra reveals her clawed right hand, “Back off.”

“You’re in no position to fight Catra,” Lonnie crosses her arms. “Come peacefully and we can talk negotiations of returning you back to Alliance in one piece.

The Magicat, knowing the other woman is right, retracts her claws and allows Rogelio to bridal carry her to their nearby ship.

“And here I thought cats always land on their feet,” Kyle laughs as Catra glares at him.

“Shut the fuck up Kyle.” Lonnie spits at him before turning to Catra as they enter the ship, “Ignore him. Communicator?”

The brunette hands her captor the device as Lonnie, places the device into her own ear and taps it. “What are you doing?” Catra asks as Rogelio places her onto a long bench in the back of their ship as the other agents take their seats.

“Telling your team that we have you and you’re safe.”

Surprised by sort-of kind gesture, the Magicat raises her eyebrows, “Why?”

“Because my team always takes care of our prisoners, even the ones from Alliance.” Lonnie half smiles as she gets through to the other organization. “This is Agent Lonnie of the Horde, we have your Agent, Catra. She’s safe.”

Yelling that sounds like Glimmer’s comes from Lonnie’s ear, “Whoa whoa, slow down. Your girl’s going to be alright. I know you won’t believe this but you can trust me. Let me get her patched up and we can talk about returning her to you.”

The same voice from before is heard and Lonnie takes out the ear piece, turning it off.

Turning on her ship, Lonnie issues one last command before take-off. “Rogelio, get the med kit and wrap up her wrist and ankle, I’m afraid we’ll have to wait until we get back to HQ for an ice pack for your head.”

The ship takes off as Rogelio does as he is told and begins to clean and wrap the injured wrist first.

“Thank you,” Catra breathes out as she dips back into sleep. Rogelio quickly snaps to wake her up again, not wanting the most likely concussed woman to fall asleep. He reaches into the kit and peels open a wrapped brown ration bar. and gives it to her, speaking in his native tongue once again.

“He says eat up, it will help you stay awake.” Kyle translates. “I’m Kyle by the way.” The third agent moves to begin dressing Catra’s ankle.

Looking out the side window of the ship while eating the excuse for food, Catra wonders when she will see her own team again, and at what cost it will take to do it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This concludes Act 1! Thank you so much for reading and hope you have enjoyed it so far! I will most likely have the next chapter up by early October! 
> 
> Please leave a comment below to tell me you thoughts, it is very much appreciated!!


	5. The Cat Who Came In From the Cold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alliance forms a plan to retrieve Catra from Horde's clutches. Catra learns more about Horde.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> follow my +18 only twitter @catraxwhip for behind the scenes and general thought process for developing this story and my main twitter @emxedits for even more spop nonsense

“Bow! Are you positive there is nothing you can do to keep it in her system?” Glimmer paces the floor in front of the laboratory’s monitor, Catra’s vitals still on screen, the minutes it will still be in her system slowly counting down.

“Not with this current model of the tracker pill, I’m sorry.” Bow, stress sweat dripping down his face continues typing in a code to the tracker’s system and Catra’s status is brought up in full onto the screen. “But look! It seems her ankle is nearly healed, hopefully her wrist will heal by the time we get her back.”

“Gods, what are they _doing to her_ if she has such intense injuries…and she was already so hurt from that fall” Glimmer wipes a tear from her cheek.

“Oh I don’t believe those injuries are from after her capture.” Entrapta interjects, “They were sustained before you left Beast Island so we can assume they happened before the Horde captured her since there haven’t been any new ones.”

“Adora…Adora was already there. She’s the reason Catra got hurt I’m sure of it.” Glimmer locks eyes with Bow. “We can’t just continue sitting around here, watching her tracker leave her system. We know she is most likely being kept at the Horde camp we surveilled yesterday. Bow, you and I should head out.”

“Glimmer.” Bow’s usual cheery nature turns serious, “You are on what, an hour and half of sleep at most? I heard you tossing and turning all night, no way am I letting you go out there in your current state.”

The pink and purple haired woman’s brow furrows as the door behind her opens. Spinning around on her heel, she watches as Angella seemingly floats into the room, a tea sipping Perfuma behind her.

“Good morning agents.”

“Morning Angella.”

“Any update on Catra?”

“Nothing,” Glimmer breathes out. “Just that her pill is minutes away from being completely out of her system.”

Angella nods her head solemnly at the situation. “Understood. Meet in the conference room at the top of the hour, I’ll see if I can arrange a call with Horde to discuss a deal for her safe return.”

“You would do that Angella?” Glimmer’s eyes grow with gratitude at the gesture.

“Of course I would. Not only is Agent Catra a vital player in our operation but…I take care of the people who work for me. In my opinion it’s what makes the difference between a good leader and a great one.” Angella smiles warmly as she notices at the bags under Glimmer’s eyes.

Turning towards Perfuma, Angella touches the blonde’s arm gently, “Perfuma, be a dear and make Glimmer one of you ‘pick-me-up’ juice blends would you?”

“Of course, I’ll add extra strawberries for you I know they’re your favorite.” Perfuma winks at Glimmer before exiting the room, Angella slowly following behind her.

“Get yourself refreshed Agent, I might have to send you on a retrieval mission to save our beloved cat this afternoon.”

“Might?!” The previously exhausted spy straightens up, “If you are sending agents out to get Catra, you better believe I am going to be one of them ma’am. All due respe-”

“I know agent. Entrapta, let me know once Catra’s vitals are no longer readable and have your team work on a replacement tracker pill.”

Entrapta nods, “Already in the trial stages of one that lasts up to a week Angella.”

“Excellent.” The head of Alliance leaves the room, the door to the lab closing gently behind her.

* * *

A few minutes later, Glimmer is the last person to enter the conference room, the newly reenergized agent takes a seat next to Perfuma, the only other agent in the room as their boss types in a code to secure a connection to call Horde.

As the call connects the two agencies, Angella brings Glimmer up to speed.

“Agent Glimmer, I have assigned Agent Perfuma to lead in your retrieval mission. I have taken the liberty to speak to my contact at Horde and have arranged a call with her to discuss how we can get Catra back safely.”

“What do we have that they would want in exchange for her?” Glimmer asks.

“I don’t know, that’s what I am most eager to find out.” Angella, sees that the video call is ready to go live and rolls her shoulders back as she presses the ‘start call’ button.

The large screen in front of them springs to life and Glimmer and Perfuma sit back in shock at the woman sitting on the other side of the screen.

“Hello Shadow Weaver.” Angella states coldly.

“Angella,” Shadow Weaver’s scarred flesh bends as she smiles coyly. “I was pleasantly surprised to receive your message.”

“Let’s get down to the matter at hand,” Angella spits out. “I need to know my agent currently in your grasp is safe and being treated for her injuries which were obviously done to her by the hands of one of your Horde assassins.”

“No need to be so aggressive.” The second in command tsks through the microphone. “Your agent has been treated just as well as one of our own.”

“ _That’s not saying much._ ” Angella mutters under her breath as she moves around some files on the table in front of her before picking out a single file and placing it on top. Looking back at the screen she locks eyes with her enemy, “What do we need to do to get out agent back without hassle?”

“It’s simple really,” Shadow Weaver takes a sip of her merlot, “I’ll give you back your precious _Catra_ in exchange for your findings on the Black Garnet you intercepted on Beast Island. _One of our own damaged the room she caught your agent in before she could document them herself._ ”

Angella half smiles at the knowledge that they do indeed have something over the other agency. “Fine. I’ll send Agents Glimmer and Perfuma, shall we say at 1100 hours?”

Shadow Weaver nods to a henchman off screen to note the arrangement, “Perfect, have them meet at the front entrance to our Whispering Woods camp, that pink one behind you should know where it is.”

Glimmer blushes at the other woman addressing her as the two other women in the room turn to her, Angella raises an eyebrow.

“Excellent, they will be there at 1100 _sharp_.” Angella disconnects the call and lets out a long breath as she sits down and passes the top sheet of paper to Perfuma. “Catra was the only one in the room that was destroyed, the room that previously housed the Black Garnet. Once I learned of her capture I contacted who _I_ suspected of knowing the location of the gemstone, Heiress Frosta and her family.”

Glimmer lets out a long groan and Perfuma giggles.

“Don’t worry Glimmer,” Angella continues. “Most likely there will be no what you call ‘babysitting’ in the near future.”

Glimmer crosses her arms, “But there’s a chance.”

“We are in the espionage business Agent, there is a chance for _everything_ , it is the beauty and tragedy of what we do.” Looking back at the sheet, the head of Alliance continues, “Moving on. I spoke with Frosta’s father this morning and he confirmed my suspicions that he is the current holder of the Black Garnet.” She points at the paper as Perfuma reads it, “Their information is on this file, prepped and ready for Horde.”

Perfuma looks up at her boss in confusion for how easily she is giving up the vital information. “Ma’am with all due respect, Glimmer and I are more than qualified to break Catra out ourselves, there really is no need to…”

“I know you both are Agent, but with her vitals being what they are according to Entrapta’s pill I can’t risk Catra getting hurt even more. The Kingdom of Snows has made it clear they will not just give the Black Garnet over to anyone. Giving Horde this information truly isn’t as risky as you might think. I know how they operate. I _especially_ know how Shadow Weaver operates. Rest assured, we are still several steps ahead by giving them this small thread of information. And most importantly,” Angella turns to Glimmer as she sweeps the other files under her right pinstripe suited arm in one fluid motion, “Catra will be back home soon.”

The older woman smiles warmly as she leaves the room. Just as the door closes, her cell beeps with a text message. “Ah, Entrapta has informed me that the pill is completely out of Catra’s system. Report to me before you leave agents, and good luck.”

The door closes behind her as Perfuma and Glimmer stand to leave themselves.

“What was that? Did you get the feeling that Angella and Shadow Weaver knew each other more than just being opposing head of operations at their respective agencies?” Glimmer asks.

“Oh they used to work together at a previous agency.” Perfuma states matter-of-factly.

“What?!”

“You didn’t know? I’ll tell you all about it as we prep. Now come on, we gotta go save your girl.”

Glimmer rolls her eyes as Perfuma tosses an arm around Glimmer’s waist as they walk out of the room.

* * *

Catra washes her hands as the toilet in the small bathroom in her room finishes flushing. After rinsing the soap completely off of them she shakes her hands before running her clawed finger’s through her hair, given the still injured spy some appearance of composure.

A single strand falls in front of her face as she finishes ‘combing’ the dark brown short hair. Scratching the lighter hair at the back of her neck as she leaves the small room, Catra finally takes the time to inspect her surroundings, something the exhausted Magicat didn’t have the strength to do until this morning.

Mismatched eyes take in the small gray bland room as she sits down on her bed, elevating her sore ankle in the process.

 _I’ll give them this, for Horde their cells are surprisingly swanky,_ She thinks to herself. _That being said Alliance doesn’t even have cells._

Catra begins unravelling the wrist bandage the Horde agent known as ‘Rogelio’ dressed for her. The white bandage, now an off white color due to sweat. comes off as neatly as it was put on. Keeping an even pace as her wrist is slowly freed, Catra finishes the undressing and tosses the bandages into a corner of the cell. She then begins to slowly flex her hand, feeling her still swollen joints crack and shift at the action.

“Ah!” she mutters under her breath in pain as her hand flexes fully. _Definitely not broken but no way can I land a punch with this for at least a few weeks._

Returning her hand to a relaxed position Catra decides to keep her ankle wrap on to stabilize the worse off wound, as she swings her other leg to meet it onto the bed and props the pillow on the thin mattress up to face the gray door at the end of it, a small window 5 feet up revealing the quiet hallway outside.

Suddenly, Catra’s ears perk up as she hears footsteps steadily approaching the door. The footsteps stop as Lonnie’s face is revealed through the window. Her captor opens the hatch at the bottom of the door and slides a tray containing a ration bar and water bottle over to the middle of the room. The Horde agent then peers inside to see if Catra is awake. Seeing that she is, Lonnie breaks the silence in the hallway.

“‘Lunch’ is served.” She cocks an eyebrow as Catra slowly lifts the tray with her good wrist onto her lap and sniffs the gray food.

“Lunch?”

“Out here it is.” Although Catra can only see Lonnie’s head, she crosses her arms. “What? Did you think we’d serve you actual food while we eat this shit?”

“ _You_ eat this?”

“It’s provided, a perk of working here…”

“ _I can’t wait to hear the others._ ” Catra mutters.

“I’m not here to recruit you Catra, Gods know I’m only here to get pilot’s experience before I can apply to Brightmoon’s Flight Academy.”

“You seemed like a very capable pilot last night, as far as my concussed head can recall.” Catra forces down a bite of the gray mush, the cool water helping make the process slightly easier.

“Oh, don’t get me wrong _I am_. I just need five hundred commercial hours before I can reach the big time.”

“Five hundred?!”

“It’s pretty elite if I do say so myself.” The two chuckle, content with being able to discuss anything but work, despite the circumstances.

“Alliance doesn’t have a space program, we’re too small of a private organization.” Catra finishes off the ration bar.

“Oh I know. I remember when Shadow Weaver came to the barracks that was something explicitly made clear to me.”

“The barracks? So you’re an army gal. Let me guess, Brightmoon’s?”

“Yeah, me and about 90% of the folks in this place, Rogelio, Kyle, hell even Adora.”

Catra’s ears perk up at the blonde’s name. “Even Adora? Damn I assumed your quartermaster made her in a laboratory.”

Ignoring the strange comment, Lonnie responds. “She might be the head bitch in charge around here but even she came from the same humble roots as the rest of us Horde agents. What about your crew over at Alliance?”

Catra takes another bite and sip, “Alliance recruits through Brightmoon University and Brightmoon Tech. I was poli sci before I was recruited.”

A ping comes from Lonnie’s wrist watch and the agent reads the message, “ _Ugh come on Kyle_. I’ve gotta run. I’ll be back later with your dinner.”

Catra slides the tray back to Lonnie, “Let me guess more gray mush?”

Lonnie thinks for a moment, “No actually. Its Thursday which means tonight you’ll be dining on the brown kind.” She picks up the tray and walks away.

“The brown kind?! What the _hell_ is the brown kind?!” Catra shoots after her as Lonnie turns the corner, leaving Catra alone once more. “

* * *

Meanwhile, Glimmer and Perfuma make their way across the hilly outskirts of Brightmoon City in Glimmer’s SUV.

“…So Angella, the woman I have only seen lose her composure a handful of times in the last year was the one who gave Shadow Weaver her scars?” Glimmer confirms as Perfuma continues driving.

“According to Micah, Angella was much more ruthless before starting Alliance. Back when she was an agent herself.”

“Micah always says I remind him of her back then,” Glimmer looks out the window in thought.

“Does that mean I’ll have to call you ‘Director’ one day Agent?”

Glimmer chuckles under her breath, “Maybe one day, Agent Glimmer suits me just fine for now.” Her focus shifts to the now in front of them valley where Catra is being kept. The pink haired woman sits up in her seat.

“Hey,” Glimmer turns towards Perfuma who continues. “Catra’s going to be ok. If I know her like I think I do I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s already broken out.”

“I hope you’re right. But if not…” Glimmer pulls out a black hand gun out of her bag and begins to load it. “We’re going to break her out ourselves.”

* * *

“With all due respect Shadow Weaver, releasing our prisoner back to the enemy is not necessary. I’ll find out what was in that room myself.” Adora addresses her boss coldly in Shadow Weaver’s maroon office, the agent standing tall in front of the other woman. The only painted room in the entire camp warmly lit with a golden chandelier and a fire coming from behind Shadow Weaver’s desk.

“We are only in this mess because of you Adora.” Shadow Weaver spits out, standing from her black desk chair to seemingly overtake the room with her anger at her head agent. “The information we have agreed to exchange for her is the information we should have but you were too distracted by her to collect.”

“Sha-”

“We are done discussing this Adora. Our prisoner relayed the information to Alliance before capture and now two Alliance agents are heading here to deliver that intel to us.” The scarred woman uncorks a bottle of pinot noir, “Retire to your quarters and await further instruction. I’ll have someone deliver your dinner.”

“Yes Shadow Weaver.” Adora bows her head and swiftly leaves the room.

* * *

Glimmer and Perfuma continue their journey to the Horde camp on foot. As they make their ways through the small hills of the wooded area, Perfuma pushes the dense forest life out of their path with grace as Glimmer marches through the dense branches.

“Glimmer, we’ll get there when we get there, we still have 20 minutes until we’re due.”

“I’m going crazy here over here Perfuma! Not knowing her vitals, knowing that she’s hurt, _that she’s with Adora._ ”

The blonde stops knowingly, “What’s so bad about her being with Adora? Besides the obvious.”

Glimmer slows down her strut and sighs, “Because it’s obvious she’s into her. She was basically eye fucking her abs during our surveillance mission.”

“Why does that matter, it’s not like you two are exclusive or anything.”

“It’s not that.” Perfuma raises an eyebrow, Glimmer ignores it, “It’s the fact that her attraction could put our entire missions in the future in jeopardy! Hell maybe that’s why she got caught. _Adora_ is her Type with a capital T on paper, just hopefully not in practice.”

“I’m sure she’s not ‘sleeping with the enemy’ so to speak Glimmer. Although if I can offer some free advice, maybe you should talk to Catra about this when you two are reunited.”

“No. That’s just not how our ‘relationship’ or whatever works Perfuma.” Glimmer climbs over a fallen tree as the two continue to the camp in silence.

* * *

Catra attempts to pace in her room, assessing the damage to her ankle. Wincing as she turns on her heel to walk back towards her bed, the brunette finds she is able to walk without assistance, although the spurts of pain that come from the pressure tell her to not make a habit of it until she can get proper medical treatment.

Her ears perk up again as someone comes down the hallway. Noting the different pace of steps from Lonnie’s earlier, Catra leaps back off her good foot onto her cot as the door swings open.

Adora, her dagger in hand charges in and pulls Catra off the mattress causing the Magicat to yelp in response.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?!” Catra screams into Adora’s face.

“You have intel on the location of the Black Garnet. You are going to tell me or…or else!”

“Or else what Adora? If you need this intel so bad you aren’t going to kill me for it.” Catra spits out flatly.

Adora’s shoulder’s drop in realization for a moment, just long enough for Catra to run her tail along Adora’s outer right hip. Caught off guard, the blonde drops the dagger as Catra snatches it out of the air and spins around her assailant, her foot claws digging into the back of Adora’s calves. Adora grunts as she falls forward onto the mattress and Catra springs her feet back onto the floor, hiding the pain the action caused her foot.

The dagger now against Adora’s neck, Catra whispers into the blonde’s right ear. “Now, that’s more like it.” Catra purrs over the Horde agent’s shoulder, “Why don’t you show me the way out of here Agent Adora?”

Catra pulls Adora off the bed, the motion causing a few specks of blood to fall off of the claw marks on the blonde’s calf. Now standing, Catra uses her left arm to push Adora towards the door, the first one’s tech blade still just shy of digging into her neck as the two leave.

* * *

Meanwhile, the two Alliance agents finally reach the entrance of the camp. Perfuma, now in front of Glimmer holds up both hands, showing she doesn’t have a weapon to the guard outside the camp’s entrance. The guard, a shotgun now raised at Glimmer who refuses to lift her hands, takes a step towards the duo.

“Show your hands agent.”

Glimmer offers a sly smile as she raises her arms, revealing her gun. As the guard prepares to shoot, the door behind him swings open, throwing him to the ground as Catra and Adora fall out of the camp.

“Catra?!” The pinked haired woman lowers the gun in surprise at the sight of the Magicat.

“As always you two are right on time.” Catra grins as she swipe kicks Adora’s legs out from under her, causing her hostage to fall to her knees. Leaving the assassin’s side, and finally removing the blade from her neck, the brunette walks over, trying her best to hide her limp from Glimmer as she reaches her rescuers and rests her arm on Perfuma for support.

Fighting the urge to hug her ‘not girlfriend’ on sight, Glimmer shifts her gaze from inspecting Catra’s wounds to looking down at Adora, cocking her gun in the process.

“Try anything and see what happens _Horde scum_.” Aiming the weapon at the blonde as the three Alliance agents retreat, she looks at Catra for a moment, “Are you ok?”

“I will be once I’m finally home and get some ice on my ankle. Let’s go.”

“I’m glad you’re safe.” Perfuma squeezes Catra’s forearm around her neck gently as the trio continue making their way through the woods, Glimmer scanning the trees for any tall blonde Horde agents that might be tracking them.

* * *

Shoving yet another Horde henchman out of her way, Adora continues storming down the hallway to her room. Slamming the door behind her in rage, she quickly goes to her bathroom sink to assess the damage done to her neck by Catra.

The sink light flickering for a moment before fully turning on, reveals the red faced blonde, small lines of blood spattered from her neck to the top of her right shirt from a thin cut. Taking a small amount of toilet paper to begin cleaning herself up, Adora takes a moment to look at herself in the mirror.

_How the fuck am I supposed to explain this one to Shadow Weaver? Not only did I lose the intel but I lost the Alliance prisoner. Stupid Adora, stupid!_

Running the paper under the sink and dabbing her neck, Adora notes how small the cut truly is, her sweat and her struggling making it look far worse.

Taking off her bloodied shirt she tosses it onto the floor behind her and finishes cleaning the cut. Adora then takes off her pants to find slightly damp underwear. Surprised at the wetness she takes off her underwear, throwing those clothes on the floor as well. She then walks into her shower and turns on the cold water, her rage melting away as the coldness distracts her.

 _It’s just from the surprise of that Magicat getting the jump on me, that’s all._ Adora attempts to convince herself as her body betrays her by her right hand finding its way into her genitals. At first her hand begins to gently clean her folds, the water running through her fingers and the sensitive skin. The side of her middle finger grazes her exposed clit, sending a vibration through the soldier.

“Fuck,” Adora whispers into the stream of water.

Turning to face the shower head, she fully extends her left arm to meet the wall to support her as her right hand begins to build speed rubbing her clit.

“ _Now, that’s more like it_.” As she hears Catra’s whisper from earlier Adora closes her eyes, attempting to ignore the thoughts of her enemy filling up her head.

“ _Ahhhh…_ ” Adora grunts as she reaches climax, her middle finger continuing to rubs up and down on her clit. As she rides out the orgasm, she turns the water a few degrees colder and removes her hand. Moving to extend her right arm as well, the blonde pants as the freezing water falls down around her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> apologies for the hiatus! life got in the way but i plan on posting the next act (chapters 5-8) on a regular basis!!


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